The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 76/No. 24      June 18, 2012

 
Advocates of Maori rights
sentenced in frame-up trial
 
BY ANNALUCIA VERMUNT
AND MIKE TUCKER
 
AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Long-time Maori rights campaigner Tame Iti joined supporters in a defiant haka (war dance) as he was sentenced by the High Court here May 24. Iti and co-accused Rangi Kemara were given prison terms of two and a half years on weapons possession charges. Two others, Urs Signer and Emily Bailey, were sentenced to nine months home detention on the same charges.

The four were part of a group of 18 arrested and jailed in October 2007, originally framed up on charges of plotting terrorist attacks in support of Maori claims for land and self-determination.

Iti, a leader of the Tuhoe tribe, has been a prominent leader of the fight for Maori rights for more than four decades.

A jury earlier this year found the four guilty of some firearms charges while dismissing others, but did not convict on the more severe charge of “participating in an organized criminal group.”

But the prosecution and judge rationalized imposing harsh sentences for the relatively minor conviction, as if they were in fact guilty of charges the jury refused to convict on. During the five-week trial the prosecution built much of its case on the defendants’ political support for Maori rights and revolutionary struggles.

“As I view the evidence, in effect, a private militia was being established,” said Judge Rodney Hansen during the sentencing of all four defendants. “Whatever the justification, that is a frightening prospect in our society, undermining of our democratic institutions and anathema to our way of life.”

“I think the people of New Zealand should be thankful the police stepped in and sorted out the rot that was occurring,” Police Commissioner Peter Marshall told TV One News the same day. He claimed the four were members of a group “preparing for serious violent offenses.” Over the following days newspaper editorials and other media commentaries joined the smear campaign.

Following the sentencing, 100 people rallied outside Auckland’s Mt. Eden prison to show support for Iti and Kemara. Another protest was held there May 26. Authorities moved the two to separate prisons outside Auckland on June 1.

“We were expecting a much lesser punishment,” Tuhoe leader Tamati Kruger told TV One News May 24.

Maori tribal leaders, including from the large Waikato-Tainui federation, issued statements condemning the sentence.

The Maori council of the Council of Trade Unions, the national union federation, voted to support Iti and Kemara and back steps to get their prison terms overturned. “These charges arose out of the illegal terror searches in 2007 that a jury was unable to reach a verdict on. It is out of scope for the judge to take those charges into account in sentencing for these relatively minor firearms charges,” said CTU Vice President Syd Keepa.

A legal appeal against the conviction and sentence was filed May 28.

The frame-up dates back to a police spy operation that began in 2006, using video surveillance and bugs on houses, cars and telephones. On Oct. 15, 2007, more than 300 cops raided some 60 homes across the country, arresting 18 people. In the single biggest assault, heavily armed police laid siege to the rural town of Ruatoki, a center of the Tuhoe tribe where cops claimed “terrorist” training camps were being organized.

The spying and arrests were carried out under the 2002 Terrorism Suppression Act. This was the first, and to date, only time the new terrorism law has been used.

In face of protests the solicitor general backed off the “terrorism” charges. Prosecutors pressed ahead with firearms charges against 18 defendants, along with charges that Iti and four others were part of a “criminal group,” one of whom—Tuhoe Lambert—died before the case was brought to court.

In September 2011 the Supreme Court ruled police evidence was illegally obtained and could not be used against those facing arms charges alone. The frame-up proceeded against the four facing charges of belonging to a “criminal group.”
 
 
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