Ahmed Zaoui charged in Algeria under law which includes death penalty as possible sentence

Ahmed Zaoui breaking down during a press conference in 2007 - his first first day out of prison in more than two years.

The plight of New Zealander Ahmed Zaoui has worsened with a charge of “subversion” laid by Algerian authorities under a section of the law with penalties as severe as decades in prison - and the death penalty.

Zaoui is now being held in Koléa Prison ahead of a trial for which no date has been set, with visits from family restricted to 15 minutes every two weeks, according to lawyer Deborah Manning.

It comes with the emergence of the document that led to his arrest by armed police - a public statement pledging to follow “the path of peaceful resolution as a strategic choice to transform the country’s situation”.

This latest twist in the tale of Zaoui comes 21 years after he arrived in New Zealand, where he sought asylum as a refugee - and was held in jail on the first NZSIS security risk certificate ever issued.

Zaoui was eventually freed and then cleared of being a risk after a years-long campaign in which Manning was a pivotal figure.

Ahmed Zaoui with lawyer Deborah Manning in 2007. Photo / Dean Purcell

For years afterwards, he settled in New Zealand and raised four children with his wife Leila, before deciding the parlous political situation in Algeria had settled sufficiently to allow a return to the country of his birth.

Manning said the arrest came as Zaoui was preparing to return to New Zealand later this year and to then live between the two countries.

She said Zaoui - a former elected Algerian MP and now a New Zealand citizen - had been transferred to a prison known for “overcrowding and harsh conditions”, with concerns from his family over how his diabetes would be managed.

Manning said this weekend she asked the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to make an “urgent appeal” to Algeria for Zaoui’s release on the basis it was for political reasons and because of his health.

She said she had been speaking with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) and there was an “open line of communication” through which it had provided “advice and assistance”.

“It has become clear that Mr Zaoui has been arrested amidst a recent tightening on peaceful assembly and association in Algeria, where many journalists have also been arrested and imprisoned. His arrest was not expected and has been a shock to all.”

Zaoui was arrested by eight armed security officers wearing balaclavas in a pre-dawn raid at his family home.

Ahmed Zaoui in his new home in Algeria, prior to his arrest.

Manning said the charge laid was one of “subversion” under a section of the criminal code carrying penalties that included 20 years in prison or - in some circumstances - death.

It is a section of the law over which international human rights bodies have raised strong concerns.

Manning said the arrest was followed by a strong expression of support from within New Zealand.

“The sought outcome is for Mr Zaoui to be released so that he can leave and return to live in New Zealand with his family.”

Manning provided a copy of the “communique” over which Zaoui was arrested, which was drafted in the name of the Islamic Salvation Front, the popular Algerian political party in which he stood as a candidate in 1991. Zaoui fled the country after a military coup, which saw the party outlawed.

The statement from the group described Algeria as confronted with a “tragic situation” in which there was a division in society as a result of the “ruling hegemonic elite’s shameless egoism and boundless greed”.

It raised issues of poverty, a political environment that was driving people from the country and instability that undermined the state to function properly.

The statement called for stability and unity, while also pledging itself to peace.

A spokeswoman for Mfat said consular support was being provided to Zaoui and his family, but no further details would be provided for privacy reasons. The agency was also in touch with Zaoui’s New Zealand-based lawyer, presumably Manning.

The spokeswoman said the New Zealand embassy in Cairo was accredited to Algeria. While it would not provide legal services, its policy included providing logistical support to assist family to stay in contact and how to lawfully provide funds.

She also said the ministry could “make periodic visits in countries where prison conditions are substantially different from New Zealand conditions”, raise medical issues when needed and potentially take up complaints about ill-treatment or discrimination with prison authorities.

Zaoui was detained when entering New Zealand in 2002 after which the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) resisted his appeal for refugee status for five years.

In September 2007, the security risk certificate was withdrawn with the NZSIS saying new information showed Zaoui was not involved in terrorism, although people he knew had been. It also said Zaoui had provided information to the authorities and that substantial time had passed between convictions - described as “unsafe” by the Refugee Appeals Authority - over which it held concerns and his time in New Zealand.

Manning became a central figure in the campaign to have Zaoui released from prison and to have the security risk certificate overturned.

In an NZ Herald podcast in 2021, it was revealed how it was her detective work in Europe, alongside the Progressive (formerly Alliance) MP Matt Robson, that turned up evidence fatal to the NZSIS case.

Manning discovered that Zaoui was the victim of misinformation created by Algerian security services that painted the refugee as the leader of Algerian terrorist group. That information went to French security officials, then their Belgian counterparts and later filtered to the NZSIS.

In 2014, Zaoui was granted New Zealand citizenship. He later returned to Algeria to continue campaigning for democratic reform.

David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.