An attack on democratic rights: New Zealand man jailed for sedition

Timothy Selwyn, 32, was jailed for two months for publishing a “seditious” document and conspiring to commit wilful damage. The maximum penalty for sedition is two years jail. Selwyn said his actions were in protest against a decision by the Labour government in late 2004 to annul Maori claims over the foreshore and seabed.

On June 8, an Auckland District Court jury found Selwyn guilty of publishing a statement with seditious intent but acquitted him of a separate charge of being party to a seditious conspiracy.

The prosecution for sedition was initiated to silence and intimidate political dissent under conditions of growing social tensions and the turn to militarism. Selwyn could have been charged with “incitement”, but was instead charged with sedition—a much more serious political offence.

Selwyn admitted to conspiring to commit wilful damage over the axe incident. He further admitted to “having a hand” in two separate statements claiming responsibility for the attack and calling on others to commit similar acts of civil disobedience. A bundle of pamphlets found at the scene called for “like minded New Zealanders to take similar action of their own” and to commit “their own acts of civil disobedience”. Selwyn claimed that putting the axe through the window had been an act of civil disobedience “at the extreme end”. The axe symbolised “determination” and the broken glass “the shattered justice of the Foreshore and Seabed Act”.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/sedi-j25.shtml