Judge mulls over best course to take in Zaoui case

The man who must review Ahmed Zaoui's security risk certificate is thinking about how he will go about it, two years after it was issued.

Retired judge Paul Neazor has had to start over after his appointment last year as Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

He replaced Laurie Greig, who resigned in the wake of a High Court ruling he might be seen to be biased after comments in a Listener article.

Justice Greig had set some guidelines on the review of the certificate, which was issued on the basis of classified SIS information, but Justice Neazor must now decide.

The certificate has been controversial because neither the Algerian refugee nor his lawyers are allowed to see the secret information.

A Supreme Court ruling last week over who takes Mr Zaoui's human rights considerations into account removed the final impediment to the review beginning.

Justice Neazor said yesterday he could not give details or a start date.

"The next thing I'm likely to do, and I haven't set it up yet, is to see the counsel for the various people involved and talk to them about it and that's it. I haven't got any other views about it."

Mr Zaoui has the right to be represented by counsel and to call witnesses but beyond that it is up to Justice Neazor to decide procedure.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has indicated the review is unlikely to be completed before the election but Justice Neazor was giving no clues.

"I'm taking it one step at a time and when it's finished, it's finished."