Police to destroy clones made of Nicky Hager’s data

Nicky Hager and lawyer Steven Price are travelling to Auckland tomorrow (Friday) to collect the computer equipment and files seized in the 2 October 2014 police raid on Mr Hager's home. All the items will be returned to Mr Hager untouched, after the High Court decided late last year that the raid on Mr Hager's house had been "fundamentally unlawful".

The computers and other property have been in sealed containers inside the Auckland High Court building during the court proceedings. Mr Price was present during the raid and signed the seals before the containers were removed from Mr Hager's house. He will be inspecting them to ensure that no one has accessed Mr Hager's property while it was in storage awaiting the court decision.

Mr Hager and Mr Price will also watch as a police officer destroys a police hard drive and memory card onto which the officers had copied materials from Mr Hager's house during the raid.  The hard drive and memory card have been sealed up with the rest of Mr Hager’s belongings inside the Court. After they have been destroyed, the police will give the remains of the devices to Mr Hager.

This process is expected to start at the Auckland High Court at 12 noon, Friday 18 March. Mr Hager and Mr Price expect to bring out the returned property and the destroyed police storage devices at about 12.30 pm. They will be available to talk to journalists at that stage.

The police have refused to allow media to be present while the officer is destroying the hard drive and memory card.

ends

© Scoop Media