Auckland-based Samoan lawyer Olinda Woodroffe says she was "traumatised" when she had to seek refuge at the New Zealand High Commission office in Apia last week after being threatened with arrest.
Mrs Woodroffe and her daughter, Annette, also a lawyer, arrived back in Auckland on Sunday after an
attempt by Samoan police to take her into custody on Friday.
"I am pleased I am out of the country, with my daughter," she said yesterday. "We arrived very distressed."
She said alleged intimidation by police of her and another New Zealand-based woman lawyer, Iuni Sapolu, was affecting their right to practise law in Samoa, where there had been moves to require lawyers appearing in court to live there.
"I wonder if this has to do with us coming from New Zealand with well-prepared, well-researched cases."
Yesterday Mrs Woodroffe was writing to Prime Minister Helen Clark and Deputy Samoan Prime Minister Misa Telefoni to complain of being bailed up at her house at Vailima, Samoa.
Mrs Woodroffe said five burly men, who were in plainclothes and did not produce police identification, tried to get her to leave her house with them. She told them she would meet them at Apia's courts building, but when they did not arrive, she took refuge at the adjacent NZ High Commission.
"We got all the help that we could possibly expect from the High Commissioner's office," she said.
A diplomat had let them stay in a room at the commission while he sought information from police, but when that could not be done quickly, the commission suggested the pair not go back to their house.
"We hid in a low-profile hotel until we were able to leave," Mrs Woodroffe said. They were escorted to the airport by a local lawyer.
Samoan Police Commissioner Papalii Li'o said Mrs Woodroffe was wanted as part of investigations into a complaint filed by the Ministry of Justice in Apia over allegations that insults were levelled at several justice office staff, Radio New Zealand International (RNZI) reported.
Ms Sapolu appeared in Samoa District Court on two charges of obstruction and three of using insulting language after a police raid on her family's property last week.
- NZPA
