Wednesday, November 19, 2008

New charges for accused in terror raids
Fresh charges are expected to be laid as early as next week against five of the 17 people arrested after anti-terrorism raids in Bay of Plenty. Prosecutor Ross Burns said Tame Iti, Tuhoe Lambert, Whiri Kemara, Swiss national Urs Signer and Emily Bailey, of Wellington, would be charged with participating in an organised criminal group "within the next week or so".
Meanwhile, a High Court hearing to decide if the trials of the 17 accused could be moved from the district court to the High Court was adjourned yesterday till March 25. Mr Burns said there were legal issues to be argued, including the admissibility of evidence obtained by electronic surveillance, that could only be argued in the High Court. All but one of the accused opposed the transfer.

What are the police trying to pull here, the electronic evidence was all written off as not being usable because they didn’t get over the threshold necessary under the TSA, which was a farce piece of legislation in the first place – what is this ‘participating in an organized criminal group’ crap, are Police trying to test out new powers of being a member of an organized criminal group because the Police themselves are determining it? Is this another fishing trip for them desperately trying to find something, anything that defends the millions they spent on this investigation?
posted by Bomber @ 7:04 AM

At 19/11/08 8:55 AM, Anonymous said... They should be given medals, not put on trial.

At 19/11/08 10:27 AM, Graeme said... The prohibitions on being part of a criminal gang are not new.

There are proposals to increase the penalty, and proposals to make gang membership an aggravating factor in sentencing, and proposals to give police extra powers ... but they haven't been given them yet.

These purported new charges are not police testing the boundaries of something new; I leave open the question, however, of whether they involve the police testing the boundaries of something not quite so new...

At 19/11/08 10:29 AM, Anonymous said... "They should be given medals, not put on trial."

For trying to overthrown the govnt?

Would you force your sister to marry her rapist?

What a dumbass.

At 19/11/08 11:44 AM, ant said... I'm still waiting for that "powder keg" of inside info you and others alluded to months ago.
What do you think it is? That one of the air rifles seized had been modified to shoot out fart vapours?
For fuck's sake. This was bullshit from the start.

At 19/11/08 2:44 PM, Mark said... Section 98A of the Crimes Act 1961 (see below) came into force in 1998 so is hardly new: 98A Participation in organised criminal group

(1) Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years who participates (whether as a member or an associate member or prospective member) in an organised criminal group, knowing that it is an organised criminal group, and—
(a) knowing that his or her participation contributes to the occurrence of criminal activity; or
(b) reckless as to whether his or her participation may contribute to the occurrence of criminal activity.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, a group is an organised criminal group if it is a group of 3 or more people who have as their objective or one of their objectives—
(a) obtaining material benefits from the commission of offences that are punishable by imprisonment for a term of 4 years or more; or
(b) obtaining material benefits from conduct outside New Zealand that, if it occurred in New Zealand, would constitute the commission of offences that are punishable by imprisonment for a term of 4 years or more; or
(c) the commission of serious violent offences (within the meaning of section 312A(1)) that are punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10 years or more; or
(d) conduct outside New Zealand that, if it occurred in New Zealand, would constitute the commission of serious violent offenc

Check out the calendar at http://october15thsolidarity.info/en... for upcoming events.

Wellington/Te Whanganui a Tara
October 15th solidarity – Poneke – campaign meeting Interested in getting involved in organising for a world free of racism, in support of tino rangatiratanga and freedom of speech?

The October 15th Solidarity crew wants you! Meetings for the October 15th Solidarity crew are now fortnightly on Tuesday nights at 128 Abel Smith Street at 7pm.

We are working around four common points: -Support for tino rangatiratanga and te mana motuhake o Tuhoe-Justice for the people raided-Abolition of the 'terror laws'-Dropping of the charges against the 18 arrested and charged in the raids.

The next meeting is Tuesday, 18 November. We will be discussing the focus of the group and our work over the coming months.

Bring your ideas and friends along and get involved! We would like to make our meetings friendly for those who are working or who have children - so some food will be provided and childcare can be arranged - please email me, Valerie, if you would like to arrange some childcare. We hope to see you there!

Auckland/Tamaki Makaurau

18th November 2008 - High Court Hearing.
The defendants have been excused from this first hearing in the Auckland High Court.

ARTICLES and UPDATES

1. Global Day of Action - 30th August 08 For a report on the Global Day of Action, check out http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/dis....
There were protests across Aotearoa and also overseas!

2. Deposition Hearing - September 08
The month long deposition hearing in Auckland concluded on 3 October.
Judge Perkins delivered his decision on 17 October: all but one of the defendants were committed to trial.
Only Rongomai Bailey had all charges against him dropped. The charges relating to the camps alleged to have been held in November, April and August 2007 were dropped, heavily reducing the total number of charges.
To read the daily reports from the deposition hearings: http://october15thsolidarity.info/en...

3. Fresh charges in the indictment On 30 October,
the crown laid fresh charges against five people charged as part of the October 15th raids.
There is one new charge of participating in an organised criminal group against Tame Iti, Rangi Kemara, Tuhoe Lambert, Emily Bailey and Urs Signer. All 18 people face charges of possession of firearms and restricted weapons under Section 45 of the Arms Act.
This new charge was the most disturbing change to the charges contained in the indictment. The charge of participation in a criminal group (Section 98A of theCrimes Act) is a relatively recent charge introduced in 1997.
The charge carriesa term of imprisonment of a maximum of 5 years and has several elements that the Crown must prove.
First the crown must prove that each person knew it was a criminal group AND that they knowingly or recklessly contributed to the occurrence of criminal activity.
A criminal group has a very specific definition in this law: it must have atleast 3 people and they must have as part of their objectives either:
1. To obtain material benefits from the commission of crimes with a term of imprisonment of 4 years or more OR
2. To commit serious violent offences that are punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10 years or more. The term ‘serious violent offences’ also has a specific legal meaning under Section 312(I) of the Crimes Act.
They include crimes that involve the loss of life or injury of a person or serious damage to property involving the safety of individuals.
This new charge against 5 of the people arrested would seem to be a clear tacticof the State to save face after failing to bring charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act (TSA).
The Solicitor-General refused to allow the charge to be brought due to lack of evidence.
As a result,

Representatives and supports of Indigenous peoples across the Pacific gathered outside the Aotearoa/NZ Consulate in Melbourne on 6 February as part of an international protest. In addition to speakers from Aotearoa a statement from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was read by a representative of ISJA (Indigenous Social Justice Association) and Krautungalung elder Robbie Thorpe spoke. Others included Nick Chesterfield, long-term campaigner for Indigenous rights in the Pacific, and Marisol Salinas, who delivered a message of solidarity on behalf of the Mapuche people of Chile.

There is a full report with photographs on Whenua, Fenua, Enua, Vanua - http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2008/02/w...
See also Aotearoa IMC -
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/disp...
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/disp...