NZ First calls for law change to prevent Zaoui bail hearing

New Zealand First is calling for a law change to block the Supreme Court from holding a bail hearing for Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui.

In a surprise move yesterday, the court said it had power to consider bail for Mr Zaoui and ordered a hearing for December 9, saying it would be oppressive if his detention without charge drags on.

Mr Zaoui, a former Algerian MP in an elected government overthrown in a military coup, has been held as a "threat to national security" since he arrived in New Zealand in December 2002, despite being declared a genuine refugee by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority.

Mr Zaoui's name has been linked to extreme Islamic groups, but he denies any involvement in such groups.

NZ First Immigration spokesman Dail Jones said today the Government should urgently change the law so Mr Zaoui -- who was clearly a threat to national security -- could not be released on bail.

Mr Jones told National Radio the Government had spent about $1.5 million so far in the legal battle to keep Mr Zaoui behind bars while it tried to deport him.

The Government's actions were based on security information from foreign intelligence agencies and if Mr Zaoui was to now be freed New Zealand would become a "laughing stock" of the international intelligence community, he said.

He said the decision of New Zealand authorities to issue their first ever security risk certificate against Mr Zaoui was backed up by the Belgian and French governments' findings that he was a security risk.

He said it was clearly the intention of the law to hold people who presented a security risk in custody, so Parliament needed to legislate to ensure that its original intention was being upheld.

"He is the one and only case we've ever had. We don't want him. He came here illegally. He should go back again to wherever it was he came from."

But Green MP Keith Locke, a vocal advocate of Mr Zaoui, said the court decision simply upheld the principle of habeas corpus -- the right of Mr Zaoui to have his case heard in a court -- rather than be detained indefinitely.

He rejected NZ First's call for a law change.

"I think it's important to uphold the principle of habeas corpus, because if you lower the standards for someone like Mr Zaoui then you are lowering the standards for all of us."

Mr Locke said if the Government had abided by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority finding, rather than mount endless court appeals, the cost of Mr Zaoui's case could have been slashed and the whole saga ended.

Immigration Minister Paul Swain, who under the Immigration Act has relied on the SIS certificate to keep Mr Zaoui in jail, said yesterday the Government would comply with the court's decision.

In that decision, Chief Justice Sian Elias gave the Government until next Wednesday to file submissions on any conditions it wants imposed if Mr Zaoui is granted bail or shifted to the Mangere refugee centre.

Ordinarily, she said, a bail matter would be sent back to the High Court for consideration, but because Mr Zaoui had been in custody for more than 23 months the court believed the process should not be drawn out any further.

Mr Zaoui's lawyer, Deborah Manning, visited Mr Zaoui yesterday and said an application would be made today for him to attend the bail hearing.

Attorney-General Margaret Wilson, named as first respondent in the case yesterday, declined to comment.

National law and order spokesman Tony Ryall said yesterday Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Justice Paul Neazor should hurry up and make a decision on his review of the SIS certificate because of the prospect that Mr Zaoui will soon walk free.

"He either poses a serious threat to our national security or he doesn't," Mr Ryall said. "If he does, we should send him back to where he came from.

"If he doesn't, why is he clogging up our legal system and costing us so much money?"

But Justice Neazor cannot start his review until the outcome of a Government appeal to the Supreme Court against Mr Zaoui's human rights being taken into account.

- NZPA