Zaoui needed court order to stay out late

Ahmed Zaoui

Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui needed a special court order to attend the 2005 New Zealand Music Awards on Wednesday night.

His lawyer Deborah Manning said she had sought the alteration of Mr Zaoui's High Court bail order to allow him out later than 10pm.

Mr Zaoui had been invited to the awards where he sang part of Welcome Home along with songwriter Dave Dobbyn to heavy applause.

He had appeared in the music video of the song for which Dobbyn won the Songwriter of the Year Award.

Ms Manning said she had only ever once before applied for a dispensation to Mr Zaoui's bail conditions and that was so he could attend the Supreme Court in Wellington. "Mr Zaoui respects the bail order."

She said Mr Zaoui had wanted to attend the music awards given that he was personally invited and it was a respected public event.

Ms Manning said her client was waiting for the process of a review of his security certificate to be sorted, and they had still not seen the details of the case against him.

Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Paul Neazor is to review evidence that caused the Security Intelligence Service to declare Mr Zaoui a threat in 2003.