Judges upset Zaoui case by 'risks' of interview

By CATHERINE MASTERS

High Court judges have questioned whether security watchdog Laurie Greig should have given an interview to the Listener magazine in the middle of a case he was involved in.

This was "a most unusual course and one that is fraught with risks", Justice Rhys Harrison said on the second day of a judicial review into whether the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security is biased against Algerian Ahmed Zaoui.

Comments made by Justice Greig, a retired High Court judge in his 70s, to Listener journalist Gordon Campbell last year are at the heart of the bias claim.

Justice Greig is reviewing the Security Risk Certificate issued against Mr Zaoui but Mr Zaoui's lawyers sought the judicial review to have him removed from the case.

The two High Court judges hearing the case in Auckland, Justice Harrison and Justice Peter Salmon, yesterday reserved their decision.

At the end of the hearing Justice Harrison warned Mr Zaoui's lawyers to be careful about talking to the media during cases, given their own accusations about Justice Greig.

Justice Greig's lawyer, Jill Mallon, argued that her client had been misquoted and taken out of context.

Other media had then taken the incorrect quotations from the article and had on occasion further misquoted the comments, she said.

In particular she was talking about the controversial "outski" comment, where Justice Greig has been quoted as saying if it were up to him Mr Zaoui would be "outski" on the next plane.

The judges indicated, however, that the passage of the interview which concerned them was one where Justice Greig talked about refugees and said: "We don't want lots of people coming in on false passports thrown down the loo on the plane and saying 'I'm a refugee, keep me here' ... "

Mr Zaoui fitted in that category because he had come in on a false passport which he had attempted to destroy in a similar fashion, said Justice Harrison.

Said Justice Salmon to Ms Mallon: "Persuade us if you can that it's a passage that does not lead to a perception of bias."

Ms Mallon said Justice Greig was really saying that "we don't want lots of refugees who are in fact terrorists coming in here" but was not talking about Mr Zaoui, as he had been declared a genuine refugee.

She said another part of Justice Greig's comment showed he believed New Zealand should have refugees.

Justice Harrison: "But not ones who deface passports?"

Ms Mallon said she did not accept that, because Justice Greig had made his comment in the context of questions about NZ being soft on terrorists.

Justice Harrison said if Justice Greig had used the word "terrorist" no one could complain because the country did not want terrorists coming in on false passports.

"But he's not talking about that."

Ms Mallon conceded it was unusual for Justice Greig to have spoken to the media and on a subject that could pertain to Mr Zaoui.

Given a combination of this with the ambiguity of what Justice Greig had said, "why wouldn't you [being Justice Greig] step aside?" asked Justice Harrison.

The court also heard about a missing hour of a seven-hour Security Intelligence Service-police interview held with Mr Zaoui soon after he arrived in the country a year earlier.

Mr Zaoui's counsel, Dr Rodney Harrison, QC, claimed that a document which was obtained from Justice Greig under discovery showed that he had been on intimate terms with the director of the service, Richard Woods, because of telephone calls between the pair regarding whether Justice Greig had or had not known about the videotape.

Herald Feature: Ahmed Zaoui, parliamentarian in prison

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