Zaoui not entitled to appeal, court told

1.00pm

Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui's appeal against his security risk assessment should never have gone to court, the Court of Appeal in Wellington was told today.

Mr Zaoui has been in custody since arriving in New Zealand on false papers in December 2002.

The crown is appealing against a High Court decision in December that Mr Zaoui was entitled to have human rights obligations taken into account in the review of his security risk.

Solicitor-General Terence Arnold told the court the Zaoui case was one where proceedings had been "miscarried", and should not have been before the court at all.

He said the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security had the job of reviewing risk assessments prepared by the Director General of the Security and Intelligence Service.

The Inspector-General had access to classified information, partly to protect the well-being of the person being reviewed.

Mr Zaoui had had access to non-classified material, but no one, including the court, had access to classified information.

"This is the case where judicial review should never have been granted at this stage."

Turning to human rights issues, Mr Arnold said the Inspector-General was not expected to balance New Zealand's security needs against international human rights considerations.

He said the Immigration Minister had written to Mr Zaoui's lawyers in November last year and said any decision would be made taking UN statutes regarding human rights and torture into account.

"The minister explicitly acknowledged she was obliged to take account of that consideration," Mr Arnold said.

The case, before Justices Anderson, Glazebrook and Young has been set down for two days.

- NZPA

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