Zaoui is NZ's Guantanamo Bay says QC

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN

Auckland barrister Rodney Harrison QC has labelled the Ahmed Zaoui case New Zealand's Guantanamo Bay - its "one and only post 9/11 cause celebre".

Speaking at the IBA's "Law or War" seminar in Auckland this week, Mr Harrison - who is Zaoui's lead counsel - questioned how the Government's approach to the case "can possibly square with New Zealand's claimed serious commitment to the rule of law". He said the Government had "gone overboard" given the lack of a clear terrorist threat against this country.

"Ahmed Zaoui, in a type of pocket battleship way, is New Zealand's Guantanamo Bay ... although in purely factual terms the comparison is not always apt."

Mr Harrison conceded that Zaoui had been better treated than the Guantanamo Bay prisoners held by the US military. He was not an "enemy combatant nor a terrorist". He had been granted recognised refugee status by the New Zealand judicial body empowered to make that decision.

The QC cited the Crown's opposition to giving Zaoui an "adequate de-classified summary" of information held about him and the Director of Security's reasons for concluding he was of sufficient danger to issue this country's first security risk certificate. "The sky had not fallen in after Zaoui was finally provided with the summary after a legal battle."

He believed the Court of Appeal would not uphold the security director's claim that there would be "an adverse impact on New Zealand's reputation and thus on New Zealand's international wellbeing if Zaoui was allowed to stay".

Zaoui, a member of Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), has been detained in an Auckland prison for nearly two years.

Mr Harrison said the "war on terror" was used as a justification for incursion on basic human rights.


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