New Zealand: Algerian asylum seeker wins appeal over security risk status

This is the first time a security risk certificate has been challenged. The fact that the SIS was forced to lift the certificate after more than four years of legal wrangling underlines the bogus nature of the US-led “war on terror” to which the New Zealand government subscribes. While feigning distance from the Bush White House over the past seven years, Labour has adjusted New Zealand’s immigration and terrorism laws in line with sweeping US attacks on fundamental democratic rights.

Zaoui, a former MP for the Islamist Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) in the Algerian parliament, arrived in Auckland in December 2002 on a false passport and claimed asylum. He was jailed without charge and spent 240 days in solitary confinement. Authorities persistently claimed he was a suspected terrorist, despite his being declared a genuine refugee by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority (RSAA).