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The Supreme Court has declared the then National-led government broke the law in 2016 when it cancelled a woman’s passport on national security grounds.
The Crown has been ordered to pay the woman $30,000 to cover her legal costs, but the court declined to require further payment – saying if there were issues relating to costs in the lower courts those courts should resolve them.
The ruling decides an eight-year legal battle shrouded in secrecy, and overturns previous rulings by the High Court and Court of Appeal.
As acting Internal Affairs Minister in 2016, Judith Collins suspended the woman’s passport for 10 working days while the New Zealand SIS spy agency prepared a report on the danger the woman posed.
That report recommended the woman’s passport be cancelled, saying she was planning to go to Syria to join the Islamic State terror group, having been detained in Turkey the previous year on her way to Syria, allegedly to marry an Islamic State fighter.
The woman then flew to Australia, relying instead of her passport on a letter from Australia’s entry operations centre approving her to travel there as she was waiting for her Australian passport to be renewed.
Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne – after a half-hour classified briefing based on a 20-page briefing paper with references to a further 199 pages of SIS intelligence – then cancelled her passport for 12 months.
In his evidence to the court, Dunne said the SIS assessment set out the view the woman would become further indoctrinated by the Islamic State group if she did travel to Syria, and would “almost certainly … engage with individuals who encourage acts of terrorism”.
He believed it likely she would provide practical support if she married an Islamic State fighter, and contribute technical knowledge.
The Supreme Court has now ruled that cancellation of the passport was unlawful and invalid.
RNZ
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