Zaoui rights irrelevant says Crown

By CATHERINE MASTERS

A High Court judge got it wrong when he ruled that Ahmed Zaoui's human rights had to be taken into account by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, the Court of Appeal in Wellington was told yesterday.

The Crown says the Immigration Act requires the inspector-general to look only at security issues in his review of the security risk certificate against the Algerian politician.

The Solicitor-General, Terence Arnold, QC, also said the judicial review in which Justice Hugh Williams gave his ruling should not have been granted at that stage of Mr Zaoui's case.

Ms Zaoui arrived in NZ in late 2002 and received refugee status the following year, but remains in prison because of the risk certificate the Director of the Security Intelligence Service, Richard Woods, issued on the basis of classified information.

The inspector-general is reviewing the certificate but the process has been interrupted by court hearings, including one that led to Justice Laurie Greig being replaced as inspector-general by Justice Paul Neazor.

The judicial review that was the subject of yesterday's appeal by the Crown overturned a preliminary decision by Justice Greig last year that Mr Zaoui should not get a summary of the secret allegations against him, and that he would not take Mr Zaoui's human rights into account during his review of the certificate.

The Crown did not challenge that a summary be given but is challenging the ruling that Mr Zaoui's human rights be taken into account.

Much of yesterday's hearing revolved around analysis of the Immigration Act.

Mr Arnold said the inspector-general [then Justice Greig] had accepted that the situation was serious for Mr Zaoui, who felt he would face torture and probable death if returned to his homeland.

But the statutory role of the SIS director in determining whether Mr Zaoui is a security risk was confined to security issues, said Mr Arnold.

Nothing required him to go into matters such as the possible torture of the person to be deported.

It followed that the inspector-general was also confined to security issues. Mr Arnold said it was the role of the Immigration Minister to take human rights into consideration if the security criteria were upheld.

"The inspector-general is the expert security watchdog and not an immigration watchdog."

Mr Zaoui's lead counsel, Rodney Harrison, QC, said there had been no choice but to bring the judicial review. Mr Zaoui's hearing before the inspector-general was soon and his defence team knew little about the allegations against him.

Human rights went "absolutely" to the heart of the review, he said.

The hearing today will hear submissions from the Human Rights Commission.

The International Commission of Jurists, a body of lawyers based in Geneva, has sent top official Elizabeth Evatt to watch the proceedings.

The hearing

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

* The hearing in the Court of Appeal in Wellington has been set down for two days.

* Mr Zaoui, an elected MP before the military took over in Algeria, has been in custody since arriving in NZ on false papers in December 2002.

Herald Feature: Ahmed Zaoui, parliamentarian in prison

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