Outlaws leader Peter Lui's death: A year's wait for Napier murder trial

Mersey St, Pandora, closed to traffic after the attack on March 29 this year. Photo / File

A trial for two men charged with murdering Outlaws MC president Peter Lui is unlikely to be held before the middle of next year.

Appearing briefly in the High Court at Napier on Friday, via audio-visual link from separate prisons and before Justice Jillian Mallon in Wellington also via AVL, Hemi Rapata Meihana Cahill, 29, of Waipukurau, and Belmont Sonny Freedom Eruiti Te Aonui-Tawhai, 22, of Wainuiomata, reaffirmed not guilty pleas through respective legal counsel Eric Forster and Roger Phillip.

Justice Mallon scheduled the trial for two weeks starting on July 4, 2022, and remanded the two men in continued custody to that date.

They have also pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated robbery, relating to the taking of Lui's gang Outlaws patch, and assault with a weapon.

Case review proceedings will take place in October and a trials callover to confirm the trial date will be held in December.

Lui died in Hawke's Bay Hospital, Hastings, where he was rushed by ambulance after being chased on his motorcycle through the streets of the Pandora industrial district in Napier and attacked outside the Outlaws pad in Mersey St on the Monday morning of March 29.

There have been no applications for bail for either man since the murder charge was laid a fortnight ago, the men having previously been arrested on the related charges.