2 August 2005

Progressive MP Matt Robson today received a petition from the Iraqi community who are angered at the outrageous misuse of Parliamentary privilege by Mr Winston Peters.

"On 31 May Mr Peters made allegations, totally untrue about Mr Amer Salman and Mr Omar Ali.

"Today they gave me their petition, backed by 724 other New Zealanders, which I will present to Parliament. Their reasonable request is for Parliament to require Mr Peters to apologise for his inflammatory and baseless words," said Matt Robson.

An application for a Parliamentary Response to be incorporated into Hansard will be presented by the House at 2pm today.

Amer Salman and Omar Ali have a legal opinion for a leading Queen's Counsel that solid grounds exist for them to sue Mr Peters for defamation. His media release of 31 May is not covered by Parliamentary privilege.

"I understand that legally Mr Peters does not have a leg to stand on. The only thing stopping his victims seeking justice is the cost of mounting a case - upwards of $200,000.

"The best thing for him to do would be to acknowledge his error and apologise.

"Yet he has not even responded to the reasonable request of Amer Salman and Omar Ali for a meeting. Mr Peters can write to Ahmed Zaoui but won't meet those he has attacked spuriously," said Matt Robson.

ENDS

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