Zaoui stripped and watched

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Ahmed Zaoui was stripped to his underpants and locked in a cell while a video camera tracked his movements when prison officers feared he may be suicidal.

The incident last month has been described by one of his lawyers, Deborah Manning - who was blocked from seeing him on the night - as like something out of the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

It will be raised next week when Zaoui's lawyers are due to apply in the Manukau District Court to have the Algerian refugee moved from the Auckland Central Remand Prison to the less restrictive refugee resettlement centre at Mangere.

Ms Manning said that on the night in question both she and Mr Zaoui's Corrections Department psychologist were barred from going to see their client, who she said had been depressed but not suicidal.

She said the prison management had blamed her because she had earlier told them Mr Zaoui was down, but she said it was not in his nature and against his religion to commit suicide.

"They chucked him in the cell, took away his clothes except for his underwear and we were, like, remonstrating with the managers, saying, 'Please let us talk to him to tell him what's happening,' and they wouldn't."

Ms Manning called Progressive MP Matt Robson, who was allowed to visit Mr Zaoui late in the evening because as an MP he has the right to visit.

Mr Robson told the Weekend Herald the incident was "scandalous" and showed that the prison did not know how to deal with asylum seekers.

Mr Zaoui has been in prison without charge for 16 months, first in solitary confinement for 10 months at the maximum-security Auckland Prison at Paremoremo and then at the Auckland Central Remand Prison.

In a letter to the Minister of Corrections, Paul Swain, Mr Robson wrote that Mr Zaoui was "extremely distressed" when he got there.

"The suddenness of his transfer, the forcible removal of his clothing, the fact that he was spoken to rapidly in English and that his lawyers were blamed for what was happening added to his distress."

Mr Zaoui was returned to his normal routine the next day after his psychologist was consulted, but the incident had been traumatic.

"It was a totally unnecessary step. It has the appearance of an act of persecution," Mr Robson told Mr Swain.

The incident showed that the remand prison and Corrections in general were not able to deal properly and lawfully with asylum seekers.

Mr Swain wrote back saying detainees on immigration warrants were treated as remand inmates. While not convicted of any crime, they were an unknown quantity and to avoid risk they were treated as high-medium security.

There were two conflicting imperatives for those managing Mr Zaoui, he said.

Mr Zaoui was among the longest-serving immigration detainees and had been a compliant inmate.

But he was still uniquely subject to a security risk certificate and the department needed to manage him accordingly, Mr Swain said.

"It is quite wrong to characterise this as unlawful or 'persecution.'

"The department readily concedes that in many cases this will lead to an over-cautious approach ... "

But he said this had evolved in the face of sometimes bitter experience and in part in response to post-suicide criticism that a prison should have better identified an inmate at risk.

Phil McCarthy, the general manager of public prisons, said Mr Zaoui had been treated no differently to any other prisoner considered at risk of suicide.

"We do expect prisons to react very conservatively."


Herald Feature: Ahmed Zaoui, parliamentarian in prison

Related information and links