Police apologise for linking Zaoui to al Qaeda

Police have apologised to Prime Minister Helen Clark for linking asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui's former political party with terrorist group al Qaeda.

Helen Clark said on Monday that a statement from her office had probably gone too far in making the link, and said police were looking into why the statement was drafted the way it was.

The September 10 statement carried the latest list of individuals and organisations identified under the Terrorism Suppression Act. They had been listed by the United Nations as terrorist entities.

Mr Zaoui's supporters complained about a paragraph in the statement that said one of the individuals had been "associated to the outlawed Islamist Algerian political party, Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)" as well as known terrorist organisations.

"All these groups have ties to al Qaeda," said the statement, referring to the FIS and two other groups.

However, the UN website which publishes lists of terrorist entities does not mention the FIS.

Helen Clark said she had not been able to "corroborate" the police advice to her about the FIS.

"But I think it probably got caught up in that statement with other aspects of the individual's associations with, for example, the Armed Islamic Group, which is designated a terrorist entity,"

Helen Clark said there was no doubt that the UN processed only designated people with links to al Qaeda or the Taliban and the Government followed that advice in the statement.

But it had "probably drawn too long a bow for the statement to say because he was linked with FIS, that was also directly linked with al Qaeda as an organisation".

Helen Clark said she had never claimed Mr Zaoui was connected with al Qaeda.

Acting Police Commissioner Steve Long said yesterday that police had apologised to Helen Clark for going too far in making statements about the FIS having ties to al Qaeda.

"New Zealand Police have no specific intelligence which links the Islamic Salvation Front with al Qaeda although some secondary sources claim this," Mr Long said in a statement.

"Exception has been taken to the way police linked the FIS to terrorist organisations. We withdraw and apologise for any incorrect inferences drawn."

Mr Long said New Zealand would match the terrorist designations of individuals and organisations made by the UN.

Mr Zaoui was detained after he came to New Zealand seeking to become a refugee.

He has been held for more than a year as his lawyers fight a long legal battle over his security risk designation and over the process which is now under way to decide whether he should be deported from New Zealand.

- NZPA

Herald Feature: Ahmed Zaoui, parliamentarian in prison

Related information and links