German woman arrested over death of NZ husband in Tanzania

A German woman has been arrested in Tanzania over the death of her New Zealand husband, after the New Zealand Government asked authorities there to reinvestigate the case.

The Government's unusual intervention has incensed the family of Kerstin Cameron, who faces the death penalty if convicted of killing former Waikato man Cliff Cameron.

Cameron has already spent 14 weeks in jail in Tanzania, but has yet to be formally charged. A congested court system there means she may have to wait up to eight years for a trial.

No bail is allowed in murder cases.

Cameron insists her estranged husband shot himself at her northern Tanzania home in Arusha two years ago.

Mr Cameron's family, including his brother, former All Black Lachlan Cameron, lobbied for the case to be reopened and enlisted the help of the Government.

Former Foreign Minister Don McKinnon asked the Tanzanian Government to review the case. The written request was passed on by New Zealand's High Commissioner in Harare, Bruce Middleton, to Tanzania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

An Australian crime analyst hired by Cameron, Greg Love, said from Arusha that three police inquiries had cleared his client of any involvement in the shooting.

However, he said the director of public prosecutions had so far refused to release her, and had said privately the case must go to trial.

The director could not be contacted.

Cameron's father, Gerald Loesser, said his daughter's jailing had distressed the couple's two children, who were now with his wife in Germany.

"Having lost two years ago their father, now their mother has been taken away."

Cliff Cameron was killed by a gunshot wound to the forehead.

Mr Love said pathology tests showed he had been drinking heavily before he died.

Statements by Mr Cameron's friends and neighbours say he had a history of alcohol abuse and of firing guns indiscriminately when drinking. A charter airline pilot and farm owner, he had debts estimated by his wife at $US700,000 ($1.6 million) when he died.

One of Cameron's defence witnesses has also claimed in a statement that Mr Cameron had previously threatened to kill himself.

Lachlan Cameron said the family believed there were many inconsistencies in Cameron's account of what happened the night his brother died.

He said they were particularly concerned the bedroom where the shooting took place was cleaned within hours of his brother's death, preventing a proper forensic examination.

The family later hired private investigators to look into Mr Cameron's death, and their report was forwarded by Mr Middleton to Tanzanian authorities.

Neither Mr Love nor Lachlan Cameron's Hamilton lawyer Mark Hammond agreed to release any of their conflicting forensic evidence on the case, saying that would have to wait for a trial.

Cameron says Arusha police told her she could clean her bedroom when they removed Mr Cameron's body, wrapped in bed linen. Police said then the death was a suicide.

Police from Tanzania's capital Dar es Salaam have since reinvestigated the case, and have twice declared Cameron has no case to answer. German Embassy officials said they had also heard this, but it could not be confirmed with the police.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff said Mr McKinnon's actions were "unusual."

Normally, Governments declared they could not intervene in another nation's domestic affairs.

Mr Goff said Mr McKinnon felt the circumstances of the case warranted some action.

"New Zealand of course isn't able and wouldn't interfere in the judicial process."

Mr Goff accepted that the Government's request would pressure Tanzanian authorities into reopening a case, but he said it would have had no bearing on an arrest or a trial.

"Basically, what we've done is to help out the family to present their case to the Tanzanian Government, and that seems to be proper."

- NZPA