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"Terrorist" Urgency Over But More Arrests Possible
"Terrorist" Urgency Over In Wellington - More
Arrests Possible
Police Media Contact Person
For"Operation 8" Replaced Suddenly
Images By Kevin List of today's protest at Wellington District Court
By Alastair Thompson
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At least 16 terror suspects remain in jail overnight tonight as Police say their East Cape Terrorist Camp operation codenamed "Operation 8" is continuing and more arrests may yet take place.
Activists report that they have heard that Police have remained active today questioning people. However no further arrests have been announced by Police.
This afternoon Tame Iti was refused bail in Rotorua and a Wellington Court refused to even consider a bail application for four activists arrested in raids early Monday morning.
In Rotorua Tame Iti was denied bail and remanded in custody until October 24 - next Wednesday. The Crown had sought a 2 week remand in custody. The Crown also laid three more charges of posession of illegal firearms against Iti, bringing his charge count to 11.
Meanwhile in Wellington a court packed with activists heard the Crown say that the "urgency" it had spoken of on Monday for the four Wellington accused to have their case transferred to Auckland was no longer an issue.
Asked by counsel for the accused (Counsel are Val Nisbet, Sandy Baigent, Michael Bott and Mark Lilico) to allow a bail application to be made today, the Judge refused to do so today. Bail applications will now be considered on Friday.
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Counting The Terror Accused
At present 17 activists now remain in jail accused of "Terrorism" and mostly facing charges under the Arms Act. Most of the accused have name suppression. And most will appear again on Friday for bail applications - particularly in Wellington and Auckland.
However attempts by Scoop to compile a comple list of the accused and their status have so far failed to generate a complete answer from the NZ Police.
Police National HQ public relations initially referred Scoop.co.nz this afternoon to an officer working with "Operation 8" in the Bay of Plenty.
However the PR officer informed Scoop that he had left the operation team and was not able to answer any questions. He referred Scoop back to Police National HQ's media team.
National HQ then undertook to inquire to find out what the status of three of the alleged terrorists arrested in Rotorua on Monday was now.
As of 6pm they could not say for certain what had happened to three of them though they thought one may have been granted bail.
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Michael Botts the Lawyer for one of the Wellington accused terrorists - aged 23 - today told the Wellington District Court he had been having difficulty talking to his client in Rimutaka Prison.
Mr Bott said he had tried to ring his client unsuccessfully and his client had been unable to ring him.
A dispute over whether the accused could read the evidence against him was settled by consent on the basis that the accused would be able to read the documents but only with his Lawyer present.
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The List Of Accused So Far
Wellington: Four activists with name suppression will have their freedom decided at a bail hearing beginning at 10am on Friday, and if there is time the judge will also here submissions on the issue of transferring the case to Auckland. It appears that counsel for the Wellington accused are not minded to consent to such a transfer.
Palmerston North: One accused terrorist in Palmerston North was on Monday remanded by consent till this Friday for a bail hearing.
Hamilton: One accused. He has been remanded in custody and will appear in Auckland on Friday with the six arrested in Auckland.
Rotorua: Five arrested and the fate of two is known. One may have been bailed. Fate of 2 is unknown though one may have appeared this morning/ Tame Iti will appear again next Wednesday October 24th. Counsel may appeal the judge's bail decision made today to the High Court, a written judgment is expected. One other accused has been remanded in custody to reappear on October 29th. One of the other three may have appeared
Auckland: One of six alleged terrorists in Auckland Jamie Lockett was bailed yesterday afternoon and then taken back into custody late in the evening at order of the High Court. Five other alleged terrorists will also have bail applications heard on Friday.
Police Attend Wellington Protest In Large Numbers
This afternoon there was a reasonably large Police presence as a number of demonstrators milled around outside the Court expressing their concern regarding Police actions taken earlier this week.
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ENDS
Alastair Thompson
Scoop Publisher
Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.
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