Ahmed Zaoui - Imprisonment in New Zealand

Imprisonment in New Zealand

En route to New Zealand, Zaoui attempted to destroy his fake South African passport, and upon arrival, applied for refugee status. Although his identity was initially secret, his name was illegally leaked to the media, and he became the subject of political debate and media scrutiny.

His initial application for refugee status to the Refugee Status Branch (RSB) of the New Zealand Immigration Service was declined. Although he was recognised as having a well founded fear of persecution, he was excluded as the RSB held there was reason to believe he had committed serious criminal or terrorist activities, primarily on evidence given by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.

The SIS issued a Security Risk Certificate in March 2003. Mr Zaoui then requested a review of the certificate. While not made public at the time, in February 2004 the High Court ordered the SIS to release summary of its allegations to Zaoui's lawyers, who then released it to the media. The summary excluded classified information which the SIS was not required to disclose. Zaoui's lawyers issued a point-by-point response to the summary.

After his arrest, he was initially confined for ten months in the maximum security Paremoremo Prison where he was placed on a "non-association regime". While Zaoui and his supporters' have characterised this as being in solitary confinement; this was dismissed as a ‘myth" by the Department of Corrections. However, in October 2003 his case was reviewed, and citing the "likely length of time before legal proceedings conclude", the Department of Corrections transferred him to the medium security Auckland Remand Prison where he was placed on a ‘normal association regime".