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It’s wonderful to see so many people here today. It is such a contrast with two years ago, on December 16 2002, when I first visited a lonely Ahmed Zaoui in solitary confinement in Paremoremo.
He was very much alone in those early days with only myself and his then lawyer Paul Coates able to see him.
The treatment of Ahmed Zaoui when he arrived was unconscionable. When I saw him he was shut off from the world; not able to see other prisoners; not able to listen to a radio or contact his family; forbidden writing paper, books, even a copy of the Koran; and roughed up by a guard, and insulted, called a terrorist.
This was utterly shameful treatment of a man who had been tortured by the Algerian regime – he showed me his torture marks; a man who had suffered ten long years in exile searching for a place he and his family could call home; a man who chose NZ because he knowing we were a caring people – only to be betrayed by a heartless government.
I don’t think it is an exaggeration to use the term heartless because I have been asking question after question in Parliament these last two years and I have yet to see those who answer them, the Prime Minister or the Ministers of Immigration show a flicker of compassion for Ahmed Zaoui and his family.
Helen Clark and Paul Swain go on unemotionally about there being a process underway which they can’t interfere with, which is quite misleading because in our society the SIS has no powers whatever other than to make recommendations to a Minister, in this case the Minister of Immigration, about security matters.
It was the Immigration Minister who signed off the Security Risk Certificate which is keeping Mr Zaoui in this prison. It is the Minister who under the Immigration Act can lift this Security Risk Certificate at any time of the day or night. The Minister, Paul Swain, can and should lift that certificate today.
It was quite clear from the Refugee Status Appeals Authority report 16 months ago that Ahmed Zaoui is no terrorist. Everyone here today knows that: that he is a fine democratic politician who has been slandered by a ruthless military-backed regime in Algeria. We know that he will make a huge contribution to New Zealand, helping us understand Islamic traditions and the politics of Islam. Ahmed Zaoui must be freed.
His fight for justice is, as he has said himself, a contribution to our democracy because the government actions in the Zaoui case threaten the human rights of us all.
The detention of Ahmed Zaoui has emboldened the government to put into a bill currently before Parliament, the Identity (Citizenship and Travel Documents) Bill a clause (which I call a Zaoui clause) giving the Minister of Internal Affairs the right to take away the passport of any New Zealand citizen, on vague national security grounds.
The two year imprisonment has been a shameful episode in our nation’s history and I would like to congratulate all those who have stood up for Ahmed Zaoui, including my fellow MPs, Matt Robson and Tariana Turia, and the other eight Green MPs, some of whom have visited Ahmed Zaoui. Most of all I congratulate Deborah, Richard and Rodney, Ahmed’s legal team, for the fantastic job they have done for Ahmed Zaoui, through the many court cases, helping protect the civil liberties of us all.
Free Ahmed Zaoui now!
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