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Reports from the Depositions HearingThe first round of the Depositions Hearing at the Auckland District Court is over. The court is taking a break until 22 September, when the Hearing will continue. Below are the dispatches from the first 7 days of the Hearing. Also check out Aotearoa Indymedia for updates
The Dominion Post editor has been summoned to Auckland to answer contempt of court charge in the Operation 8 case. Read more... Operation 8 defendant Watene McClutchie was arrested by police outside Auckland Distrcit Court and his partner was assaulted by police. Read more... The depositions hearing has brought together some of the people who have been affected by the raids. To spend more time with people who went through the same things, last October and November, has made us stronger. Read more... Outside of court the week ended with a bang. One of the kids turned six and so over lunch there was a birthday party outside courtroom 8. We had a cake, candles and party hats. The registrar (he who pronounces Tame to rhyme with 'same') muttered that there was no dignity in this court room. I'd say there was a lot of dignity in that court room - but not the sort the registrar would recognise. Read more... The Crown Prosecutor is called Mr Burns. I think I would take more pleasure in this, if he was balder and had a long thin nose. He’s more smarmy, for some reason he reminds me of Grant Robertson (the labour candidate for Wellington central), even though there’s not much of a physical resemblance, and I’ve never met Grant Robertson. The Auckland District Courtroom 8 hearings vis-à-vis Operation 8 proceeded apace through the fourth day. After the protracted reading of the charges in both English and Maori—generously permitted by the judge—the Crown Prosecutor took the stage with his opening overview. The charges against the last four defendants were read on Wednesday morning, and only took a few hours. The first good news of a day was that the crown agreed to a variation of bail that the crown agreed to. For the duration of the hearing, the defendants don’t need to report to the police station and they will be able to associate during the trial. The only court business that happened on Tuesday was the reading of 7 more people’s charges. Four of those charges were also read in Te Reo Maori. By the end of the day the names, dates, and legalese had all slipped together into a strange drone, both in English and in Maori. The court room we were assigned to had four rows of seats with six seats on each side. Theoretically forty eight people could fit in the court. But the third row of seats had restricted tape across them, as if it had been the scene of the crime, and signs say ‘No Seating’. |