Birthday marks Zaoui's long year behind bars

By CATHERINE MASTERS

It is Ahmed Zaoui's 43rd birthday tomorrow, an event that also marks the 12 months that he has spent behind bars in his chosen country, New Zealand.

During his first semi-public appearance, in the High Court at Auckland this week, he had a ready smile. Up close he looked tired, pale and a little bewildered by it all.

It was not possible to get near Mr Zaoui often as he sat next to his lawyers with guards watching. He was led back to a cell at every break.

But on the last day there was the chance for a quick handshake with the Islamist who has the support of the Catholic Church, but remains in jail without charge while the judicial process and the Inspector-General of Security and Intelligence inch through a process never before encountered in New Zealand.

Mr Zaoui fled Algeria a decade ago in fear of his life. He had just been elected an MP for the Islamic Front for Salvation, but his party was overthrown in a bloody military coup. The military has ruled the country since then.

He was sentenced to death by the regime and has moved or been expelled from country to country in the intervening years.

In the courtroom he glanced at the six Crown lawyers behind him and asked his counsel, "Do all these lawyers really hate me?"

A lot of the time he gazed past the media and out the windows, for a glimpse of Auckland.

On day one, when the guards forgot to feed him, Justice Hugh Williams express his concern to the prisoner.

Eamonn Deverall, a political studies student and a member of Amnesty International, went out and bought Mr Zaoui a filled roll.

Mr Deverall speaks French and is one of the few people allowed to see him in prison, helping to interpret and translate for him.

Like the priests and human rights advocates who also visit, Mr Deverall speaks highly of Mr Zaoui and describes him as dignified and highly intelligent with reserves of inner-strength.

"He never complains. He says he's not angry at the New Zealand Government, he's not bitter.

"This is a fraction of the last 10 years of his life."

Mr Deverall has delivered books about political exiles for the man who is now writing his own at the Auckland Central Remand Prison.

Mr Zaoui began his book during months of solitary confinement in maximum security at Paremoremo.

Mr Zaoui was a professor of Islam in Algeria, and when he was living in Malaysia he apparently wrote a 900-page encyclopaedia on politics and diplomacy.

He has thrived on human company since his transfer to the lower-security prison and is the reigning scrabble champion.

For his birthday he hopes to speak on the telephone to his wife and family, who are still in hiding in Southeast Asia.

Zaoui's NZ file

* Last December, the Herald broke the news that an alleged terrorist had landed at Auckland Airport.

* A security risk certificate was issued against Ahmed Zaoui in March, alleging he was a threat to national security.

* He was granted refugee status in August and was declared a man of peace, but the security risk certificate is still under review.

* Mr Zaoui's lawyers are fighting to get a summary of the secret SIS information against him.