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New Zealand citizen and Algerian democracy activist Ahmed Zaoui has been arrested in Algeria by government security services, his lawyer Deborah Manning has told the Herald.
“He is currently being detained in a police station,” Manning said. “The family is of course very concerned and working with NZ Consular affairs.”
Ahmed Zaoui returned to Algeria because the political situation seemed to be settling down.
Manning said Zaoui was a dual New Zealand and Algerian citizen who had entered Algeria on a New Zealand passport. She said he was recognised as a refugee in New Zealand in 2003 and “returned to Algeria to be with family in recent years as the political situation appeared to be settling”.
He had been arrested at gunpoint in Medea for holding a political meeting at his home and “making comment on the Algerian political and human rights situation”, Manning said.
Manning told the Herald she had spoken to Zaoui’s wife Leila and their four children, one on whom has remained in New Zealand.
Leila had spoken to Zaoui, and Manning understood he was “as well as he can be” and had his diabetes medication with him in jail.
Manning said the raid in which Zaoui, 63, was arrested took place at 5.30am as he was having tea with his family.
The house was surrounded by 12 vehicles, and eight armed officers wearing balaclavas entered the house to be met by Zaoui who invited them to join the family for tea, said Manning.
”They were searching the house for arms. They asked if he had any weapons and he said ‘I only have books’.”
She said Zaoui’s return to Algeria was on the basis of the political situation settling although matters had grown worse, particularly over the past year.
Manning said Zaoui expected the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to recognise his citizenship and act accordingly.
“He should be seen as a New Zealand citizen in Algeria being detained for political reasons.”
A spokesperson for MFAT said: “We are aware of reports of a New Zealander detained in Algeria. For privacy reasons, no further information will be provided.”
The arrest comes amid a crackdown by Algerian security services with Amnesty International estimating in June that as many as 300 Algerians were being held in prison on charges related to freedom of speech. In April, Algeria’s Parliament introduced a new law restricting the freedom journalists had to do their work.
Amnesty International said thousands had been arrested in recent years. “Algerian authorities are targeting activists, journalists, human rights defenders and other critics of the state. Anyone seen to go against the grain, be it by criticising the government on social media, participating in a group protecting minority rights, or writing for independent media, risks being detained in this indiscriminate crackdown on free expression.”
Zaoui rose to prominence in New Zealand after he was detained when entering the country in 2002 where he sought asylum as a refugee. He was the subject of a NZME documentary series in 2021.
The NZ Security Intelligence Service objected and resisted for five years Zaoui’s appeal for refugee status. The case became the focus of multiple court actions to challenge the basis of the NZSIS security risk certificate - the first time such a certificate had ever been issued.
Among those cases was a finding by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority that trials in Belgian and France, which resulted in convictions against Zaoui, were “unsafe”. It granted Zaoui refugee status, describing some of the information used to mount the case against Zaoui was “questionable” and that it failed to show he had directed or been involved in violent or terrorist acts.
Zaoui was released on bail and for three years took refuge with the Dominican Order in Newton, Auckland.
In September 2007, the security risk certificate was withdrawn with the NZSIS saying new information showed Zaoui was not involved in terrorism, although people he knew had been. It also said Zaoui had provided information to the authorities and that substantial time had passed between convictions over which it held concerns and his time in New Zealand.
The risk during this time, according to Zaoui’s lawyers, was that deportation back to Algeria could lead to him being imprisoned and killed.
Ahmed Zaoui arrives with his lawyer, Deborah Manning, for the review over his security risk certificate in July 2007. Photo / Dean Purcell
Manning became a central figure in the campaign to have Zaoui released from prison and to have the security risk certificate overturned.
In a NZ Herald podcast in 2021, it was revealed how it was her detective work in Europe, alongside the Progressive (formerly Alliance) MP Matt Robson, that turned up evidence that was fatal to the NZSIS case.
Manning discovered that Zaoui was the victim of misinformation created by Algerian Security Services that painted the refugee as the leader of Algerian terrorist group. That information went to French security officials, then their Belgium counterparts and later filtered to the NZSIS.
