An activist opposed to Israel’s war in Gaza helped co-ordinate and carry out the repeated vandalism – via bright red paint “bombs” – of electorate offices belonging to National Party officials, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Now, nearly two years later, she has appeared in the Auckland District Court asking for a discharge without conviction so that the admitted crimes won’t stymie her career.
But a judge recently denied the request, noting that she should have known better.
After all, she is a practising barrister.
Hannah Lucy Swedlund, 28, came to court last month with letters of support from the senior lawyer who employs her and from Green Party MP Ricardo Menendez March.
“I accept that Ms Swedlund felt that this was action that she must carry out, such was her social conscience,” Judge Belinda Sellers said as she imposed a non-custodial sentence that included conviction and a reparation order.
“But she also clearly knew that it was illegal and took steps to cover it up.”
Swedlund and her flatmates, Kieran Martin McLean and Kieran James Lynch, were arrested in February last year and initially charged with multiple counts of intentional damage punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment.
All three have now pleaded guilty to similar but significantly reduced charges: wilful damage, punishable by up to three months’ imprisonment. McLean and Lynch are scheduled for sentencing in December.
Details of the vandalism plot and of Swedlund’s unsuccessful bid for a discharge without conviction are outlined in court documents newly obtained by the Herald. This is the first time Swedlund has been identified and the charges reported in detail.
The two-month vandalism spree began in November 2023 with the targeting of the United States Consulate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade offices in Auckland Central.
“Ceasefire now” and “Save Gaza Free Palestine” had also been stencilled on the buildings, along with the red paint that had been squirted from two-litre bottles concealed under an overcoat.
The following morning, a group calling itself Tāmaki for Palestine issued a press release taking responsibility, explaining that the paint was intended to “make the blood on US and New Zealand officials’ hands visible”.
At the time, it had been just one month and one week since the Hamas-backed raid on southern Israel in which 1219 people – the vast majority, civilians – were killed and hundreds held hostage. Israel immediately responded with its ongoing military campaign in the densely populated Gaza Strip.
At the time of the vandalism, it was estimated by Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry that about 11,000 Palestinians had been killed, roughly 4500 of whom were children. The air strikes continue two years later, with the death toll now estimated to be just under 63,000 – mostly civilians.
Tāmaki for Palestine struck again just over a week after the first incident, this time focusing on the Auckland offices of National’s Luxon, Judith Collins, Simon Watts, Paul Goldsmith and Daniel Bidois, as well as a sign belonging to Act leader David Seymour.
It had been just over a month since the general election in which National and its political allies wrested control of Parliament from Labour.
At 1.31 that morning, CCTV captured Swedlund’s car driving in the area of Collins’ Papakura office.
The final act of vandalism occurred two months later in January 2024, when Collins’ Papakura office was hit again. The group showed off its illegal handiwork on Instagram.
Police got a pretty strong indication of Swedlund’s involvement after analysing a press release in which the group said they targeted the MPs’ offices because the politicians had refused to condemn alleged war atrocities.
“This incoming Government will be a coalition of complicity,” stated the press release, which included photos of the damage.
The release was sent out as a Word document, and police only had to look at the metadata to see the listed author: “Hannah Swedlund”.
A search warrant was executed at the Onehunga home of the three defendants on February 15 last year, and police found a trove of incriminating information, including data from Swedlund’s phone.
All three were found to have participated in a Tāmaki for Palestine chat group on the encrypted messaging app Signal. It was also discovered that Swedlund had used another encryption app, Cryptpad, to take “minutes” for multiple Tāmaki for Palestine meetings – labelled “T4P”.
The minutes included a roll call in which their first names were recorded.
They also included detailed planning for “hitting National offices”, including how to conceal “incriminating evidence” and how each participant should disguise themselves with “anonymity materials”.
After the first tranche of vandalism, the minutes showed the group discussing “MFAT” and the “Consulate” and “what went well, what didn’t go well, and things we learned”.
Police also found red paint at the home, including on Kieran Lynch’s shoes, and homemade signs saying things such as “f*** National”, “expel the Israeli ambassador” and “no genocide on Palestine”.
During last month’s sentencing, Judge Sellars said she accepted that Swedlund was “a high academic achiever with a very strong social conscience” dating back to childhood. Her supporters have described her as having always “felt things very deeply”.
She carried on that passion into her career, the judge said, describing her as “an accomplished and well-qualified practising lawyer” who focuses her legal skills on “causes for the greater good, as opposed to seeking commercial gain from her qualifications”.
But Judge Sellars also noted the vandalism cost just over $5000 to clean up.
To obtain a discharge without conviction, a defendant needs to show that the consequences of a conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending.
Defence lawyer Jack Oliver-Hood suggested that a conviction might impact Swedlund’s future legal career prospects, which he said would go well beyond the punishment intended for wilful damage.
The judge agreed that a wilful damage charge itself is “not a high-level offence”.
“... But here I cannot escape that there are nine separate occasions on three separate nights and, as outlined in the summary of facts, there was planning – well thought-out planning – in relation to this action,” she continued.
As for Swedlund’s legal career, that was a matter for the Law Society, the judge said, noting that her initially more serious charges were already known to the law profession’s governing body.
The Law Society takes into account the crimes themselves – and any mitigating circumstances – rather than a black-and-white decision based on a conviction, the court was told.
Crown prosecutor Liesel Seybold pointed out that Swedlund clearly had been able to maintain her practising certificate so far. Even with a conviction, it was noted, she could apply to have it rescinded years from now under the Clean Slate Act if it turns out to be her only dabbling with crime.
The judge agreed that a conviction wouldn’t be out of all proportion to what occurred. But even if it were, she said, she would use her discretion to order a conviction anyway.
“... In particular, I am conscious of the fact that as an officer of the court, Ms Swedlund made a conscious decision to engage in sustained, illegal, behaviour,” she explained.
“I accept what has been said about the motivations of the behaviour and that it was also designed to make a statement rather than being mindless destruction. I note acrylic paint was used, that it was considered would be able to be painted off. But equally, as I have said, there was also significant planning.”
Swedlund and her lawyer declined to comment to the Herald about the case, which is still under review with the Law Society.
The Green Party’s Menendez March said he wrote his support letter so the judge would have a full picture of Swedlund’s character. The two worked together when she volunteered with Auckland Action Against Poverty.
“I am sure Hannah and others that engage in non-violent action are well aware of the potential consequences,” he told the Herald. “It is for the sentencing judge to decide what the consequences are.”
In the five-paragraph letter, printed under his official MP letterhead, he described Swedlund as a diligent worker who “navigated complex family situations with care to uphold people’s dignity”.
“I look forward to Hannah continuing to make positive contributions to Aotearoa in her professional and personal capacity,” he wrote.
The Green Party continues to push for sanctions against Israel, with co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick temporarily booted from the House last month after she refused to apologise for saying the coalition Government should grow a spine.
But frustration with Israel has not been the domain solely of the political left.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently lashed out at Luxon after the New Zealand leader said Netanyahu had “lost the plot” and the continuing invasion of Gaza was “utterly unacceptable”.
The United Nations has recently declared a famine, citing “systematic obstruction” of humanitarian aid. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week condemned the “endless catalogue of horrors” allowed by Israel’s current Government, which he said “may be serious violations of international law”.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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