Teenager held on sedition charge

A Rotorua teenager has been remanded in custody on charges of sedition and threatening to kill.

He appeared briefly in Rotorua District Court on Monday.

Judge Phillip Connell suppressed his name and remanded him for a pre-depositions hearing on November 23. A depositions hearing was set down for December 7.

The Law Commission said on Monday that it wanted the charge of sedition deleted from the country's laws.

The last person charged with sedition was Timothy Selwyn, 32, who in July was jailed for two months.

He is appealing against his Auckland District Court conviction and sentence.

He was charged after sending a document calling on people to commit acts of civil disobedience, and his axe attack on Prime Minister Helen Clark's electorate office window in Auckland, in November 2004.

At the time he said it was in response to the Government's seabed and foreshore legislation, which he said was rushed through Parliament.

Selwyn was also jailed for 15 months on unrelated fraud charges after using dead people's names to obtain passports and other documents.

- NZPA