Ahmed Zaoui update

Ahmed Zaoui is back in court, this time asking for bail. Eighteen months in prison without charge is affecting his psychological state, and his lawyers argue that he should be released to the Mangere Refugee Centre. The core of the case is about the interpretation of the law - whether section 114(O) of the Immigration Act 1987 requires that a person covered by a Security Risk Certificate be detained in a prison - but the lawyers are also going for Habeas Corpus, and asking the government to justify Zaoui's continued detention without trial.

(Scoop has a pair of excellent background pieces here and here.)

Meanwhile, true to form the National party is saying that the case is vexatious and "an absurd waste of time and taxpayer money". The idea that the government must justify detaining someone without trial or charge for eighteen months seems absolutely foreign to these born-to-rule pricks.