October 15th Solidarity

Legal update – 18 April

Lawyers for the accused appeared in the Auckland District Court today and a number of matters were argued. First, another pre-deposition hearing has been scheduled for 19 May. The accused have been excused from this appearance. On this date, the defence will be seeking to establish if the Crown has fully responded to the application for further particulars – a legal term in which to have the Crown enunciate the precise nature of the arms possession charges.

The second issue argued today relates to the interception warrants issued under the Terrorism Suppression Act. The applications for these warrants have not been disclosed to the accused. The reason for this is that the Solicitor-General determined that there was no prima facia case for the bringing of terrorism charges. However, the defence is seeeking to establish the legality of these warrants. A decision made by consent of the Crown is that the issue will be argued in the High Court (as the original application was made in a High Court) – we now are awaiting a date for this, which will perhaps be 2-3 weeks.

Sworn briefs of evidence from Police must be handed up by 5 July – or the Police must demonstrate that they have made their 'best endeavour' to secure these briefs (usually witness statements). Thus, the accused will have a pretty good idea of who will be appearing for the Crown by this date, but it does not mean that further Police witnesses will not materialise before the trial.

Finally, the woman arrested in Auckland yesterday (17 April) has been granted interim name suppression until 19 May in order that she can retain legal counsel. She has been granted bail with conditions similar to the 19 other co-accused.