Man bailed despite name on `watch list'

A district court judge has granted bail to a Pakistani immigrant accused of fraud, despite being told that his name features on a watch list linked to the SIS.

It is understood that the list contains the names of terror suspects and that the man's name, Mohammad Amin, is of interest to the SIS and police.

Amin, 36, of Balmoral, appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday charged with fraudulently using a document, namely a residency application. He has pleaded not guilty. A lawyer for the Immigration Service, Rebecca Denmead, argued that Amin should be placed in custody because he was a flight risk.

But Judge James O'Donovan remanded him on bail for a hearing next month, after hearing that the terrorist watch list information was unverified.

The judge said he could therefore not "place any weight on that at all".

Immigration Service fraud investigator John Marston said he would not disclose how the service knew Amin's name was linked to terrorism.

The court heard that Amin had been deported five years ago for other matters, then returned using another name. For more than three years he had lived in Balmoral and worked as a taxi driver.

Whether Amin was using his real name was not known.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that the Prime Minister made public the listing of terrorist entities every few months after the Terrorism Suppression Act was introduced in 2002.

Amin's name does not appear on any of the lists which have been released this year.