Zaoui's lawyer concerned at court ruling

Ahmed Zaoui and his lawyer Deborah Manning. File picture / Amos Chapple

The lawyer for Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui is concerned by a Supreme Court ruling issued today.

The court said ministers must consider whether Mr Zaoui is in danger if he is deported from New Zealand.

But it said Inspector-General of Security Justice Paul Neazor does not have to take this in to account in his review of Mr Zaoui's security certificate.

Deborah Manning, lawyer for Mr Zaoui, said the legal team was pleased the threshold for deporting Mr Zaoui had been raised.

However, she added: "An obvious concern for me on this judgement is that Mr Zaoui's fate could be determined by a politician and we have seen in this election how peoples' human rights become political footballs… Mr Zaoui's fate could be decided by a future minister of immigration and, for all we know, that could be Winston Peters.''

She said overseas precedent in recent months had shown that western governments had sent people to other countries, with diplomatic assurances and those people had been tortured.

"The diplomatic assurances aren't 100 per cent guaranteed and there is nothing that can be done if they are broken," she said.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said the court's ruling was a victory for the Government. She said it was always the case that no-one would be deported whose safety was at risk.

"The New Zealand Government as a matter of principle does not deport people to places where they will be persecuted," Helen Clark said.

The inspector-general's review was not likely to be completed before the election, she added, but a review of the law would take place to prevent future cases taking so long to resolve.

The inspector-general is to review a security certificate issued by the Security Intelligence Service that resulted in Mr Zaoui being treated as a threat to national security.

The court said he had to base his decision only on the relevant security criteria under the Immigration Act.

It declared that in deciding whether a person poses a serious threat to New Zealand's security, "the threat must be based on objectively reasonable grounds and the threatened harm must be substantial".

It added that the inspector-general "is not to determine whether Mr Zaoui is subject to a threat which would or might prevent his removal from New Zealand".

However, if the security certificate is upheld, Immigration Minister Paul Swain will make a decision on whether Mr Zaoui can stay in New Zealand or is to be deported.

The court said he cannot deport Mr Zaoui if he "would be in danger of being arbitrarily deprived of life or of being subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

- NZPA, HERALD ONLINE STAFF