Rights body allowed to make Zaoui submissions

By CATHERINE MASTERS

The Human Rights Commission has won the right to make submissions at next week's judicial review of Algerian Ahmed Zaoui's security risk certificate.

Justice Hugh Williams gave no explanation for his ruling yesterday, saying he would give the reasons in the near future.

But late yesterday he had still not ruled on whether Mr Zaoui's lawyers will have the right to cross-examine the director general of the Security Intelligence Service, Richard Woods.

The judicial review, beginning on Monday, is challenging two interim decisions made by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Laurie Greig, in his review of the security risk certificate which alleges Mr Zaoui is a threat to national security.

One is to withhold from Mr Zaoui or his lawyers a summary of the SIS secret information and the other is Justice Greig's decision not to take Mr Zaoui's human rights into account.

Justice Williams has limited the Human Rights Commission's involvement to presenting submissions.

He granted this on the basis the commission would not seek costs from any other party irrespective of the outcome but may be subject to orders for costs against it.

The commission would not comment on the ruling yesterday but earlier Human Rights Chief Commissioner Rosslyn Noonan said while the commission did not usually become involved in individual immigration cases there were significant human rights issues involved in this case.

"The commission wants to ensure that the applicable international instruments and human rights standards are identified and applied in this case, and that these standards are recognised at all steps of the legal process."

This was the first time a security risk certificate had been reviewed in the context of a refugee case, she said.

"The commission wants to ensure that a rigorous process is followed and that guidelines incorporating the relevant human rights standards are put in place for any future cases."