Earlier in the year, the government was humiliated when three men who had entered the Waihopai spy base and deflated one of its protective domes were acquitted by a jury. So now, in a clear attempt to bypass the BORA rule on double jeopardy, they're suing them for damages.
This is a pointless act of revenge. As the Waihopai Three pointed out when this threat was first made last year, none of them have any money. Hell, one of them is a Dominican Friar, and thus sworn to poverty. The sole purpose of this suit is to legally harass and victimise these men and salvage the government's wounded pride by gaining some sort of verdict against them. They couldn't stick them in jail, so they're going to drive them into bankruptcy instead. And they're going to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money in order to do so.
Unlike the Attorney-General, my penis does not shrivel at the thought that the state's power has been successfully defied. Neither does it see any value in trying to extract money where there is none. The government has already tried to punish these men. It failed. It should accept that and move on. This suit is simply an exercise in persecution. And that is not the act of a just government, but of a vengeful crown.
