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The last time a media throng descended on St Benedict's in Newton was three years ago when Ahmed Zaoui was released from prison on bail to live with Dominican friars.
Yesterday, the crowd was bigger still. News the Security Risk Certificate against the Algerian MP had been withdrawn brought media and Zaoui supporters out in force.
Amid clapping and cheering and after being swamped with bunches of flowers, a beaming Mr Zaoui said how delighted he was that not only had his name been cleared but the Security Risk Certificate issued against him was no more.
Since his arrival, allegations he was once involved in terrorism have dogged him but now he is looking forward to a fresh start. With his three lawyers at his side - also beaming - Mr Zaoui told how his wife Leila had cried when he telephoned her to tell her the news. It is unknown when, or if, his wife and four sons can come to New Zealand to join him but the removal of the Security Risk Certificate means Mr Zaoui's status remains that of a genuine refugee, as declared by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority in 2003.
As Mr Zaoui paid tribute to his lawyers, his staunch supporters and especially the Dominican friars who took him in, one of his lawyers, Richard McLeod, returned the praise.
"I'd like to pay tribute to his faith, his courage, his patience and his dignity in the face of enormous adversity over a period of five years. He's been through a great deal. It's been an honour and an inspiration for us to have worked for him all this time and it is a privilege for us to welcome him into our country."
The decision to withdraw the certificate yesterday came ahead of the completion of its review by the Security-General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Paul Neazor.
The new head of the SIS, Dr Warren Tucker, revisited the decision of his predecessor, Richard Woods, to issue the certificate.
Mr Zaoui's lead counsel, Rodney Harrison QC, said an initiative by Dr Tucker at the tail end of the review process had produced this result. But where the lawyers parted company with the director was the process whereby classified information is held against someone but they do not get to know what it is.
"This is the difficulty, if the allegation can't be put for rebuttal but is nonetheless relied on, it becomes very difficult to defend and this is the whole issue that I think the Zaoui case points up and which needs attention," said Dr Harrison. "It's one thing to use classified information for such a positive and beneficial purpose as identifying that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction because it's obviously accurate at that level.
"But when it comes to New Zealand using second-hand information against a recognised refugee and treating it as evidence but without disclosing it, I personally have some problems."
