No power to release Zaoui from prison, Clark says

1.00pm

Prime Minister Helen Clark said today it was not within her powers to release Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui from prison while a security risk certificate remained against him.

However, she said the processes used in the case would be reviewed, while the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security would also be looked at.

Security watchdog Laurie Greig resigned yesterday following a High Court ruling disqualifying him from the Zaoui case.

Justice Greig, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, was reviewing the security risk certificate issued against Mr Zaoui, an Algerian refugee who arrived in New Zealand on a false passport in December 2002.

Mr Zaoui's lawyers sought the judicial review to have him removed from the case on the basis he was biased, with comments made by Justice Greig to Listener journalist Gordon Campbell last year at the heart of the bias claim.

High Court judges Justice Harrison and Justice Salmon said in their ruling yesterday that Justice Greig should not participate further in the review.

Progressive MP Matt Robson and Green MP Keith Locke, who have long campaigned for Mr Zaoui's release, said the asylum seeker must be released from prison in light of the High Court decision.

Mr Robson said the ruling was the third from the High Court in Mr Zaoui's favour.

In November Justice Williams ruled that Director of Security Richard Woods, who issued the security risk certificate, must take the stand and be cross-examined during a judicial review of Mr Zaoui's security risk certificate, and in December he ruled Mr Zaoui was entitled to a summary of the secret information the SIS claimed to have on him.

Mr Locke said on National Radio today that the Government, having lost three cases in a row, should not try to hold up the process any longer.

"It is completely inhuman for Mr Zaoui to stay in jail. Mr Zaoui should be let free to live in our community as a refugee and at the very least he should be transferred from prison accommodation to more relaxed accommodation either in the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre or in a bonded relationship with a prestigious member of the community," Mr Locke said.

However, Miss Clark said today on National Radio it was not within her powers to release Mr Zaoui from jail while the case continued.

"We have looked very carefully at this but the way the law was written in 1998 makes it very clear that as long as there is a certificate of security risk in existence against him, he must be held in a penal institution," Miss Clark said.

It would not be fair to refugees to designate part of the Mangere refugee centre as a penal institution and it was also not possible under the law for Mr Zaoui to be held in home detention.

"This is one of many aspects of the law around these processes that I want reviewed when the case is finished."

Miss Clark said the way the Inspector General's office had been set up would also be looked at.

Justice Greig, a retired High Court judge in his 70s, was New Zealand's first Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and held the position for 2-1/2 terms, since 1996.

"In light of this experience, in light of the fact that there isn't a deputy who can immediately step in, that's something that could be looked at," Miss Clark said.

She was not satisfied with the whole way the issuing of security certificates was done.

"Clearly there are a number of aspects of all of this which are not satisfactory and they need to be addressed."

Miss Clark defended her reappointment of Mr Greig, saying she would have had good reason not to do that.

"If you direct your attention to the judgment, the judges of the High Court say that this man enjoyed a reputation for absolute integrity, independence and fairness among his colleagues and within the profession. Now, please don't besmirch his reputation in hindsight. That was the way he was regarded and there was no reason not to roll over an inspector-general with that kind of reputation."

Miss Clark said she was taking advice on who among the relatively small pool of retired High Court judges would be available to take the job.

She would consult Opposition leader Don Brash about the appointment.

- NZPA

Herald Feature: Ahmed Zaoui, parliamentarian in prison

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