Brash on Zaoui

There's an interesting report on Scoop about Don Brash's view of the Zaoui case:

National Party Leader Don Brash this morning told 95bFM listeners that the length of time Ahmed Zaoui has spent detained in prison is "unsatisfactory".

Brash said, as leader of the opposition, he has been privy to a SIS briefing on why it issued a security risk certificate against Zaoui, but added that he remains unhappy with the way the Zaoui case has been handled.

He said Mr Zaoui has been detained for "near on two years" and that for almost half of this time Mr Zaoui was detained in solitary confinement.

Which is great as far as it goes, but at the same time looks unconvincing against the background of successive National Party immigration spokesmen claiming that the court cases are "vexatious", demanding that Zaoui let the Inspector-General decide rather than pressing for a fair and open process, or screaming that he should simply have been thrown on the first plane out of the country. Until we see a formal repudiation from the National Party of those views, and a statement demanding the full application of due process and human rights standards, then it simply looks like Brash is trying to have it both ways.