Comments from Aotearoa - a Wider Perspective
Tami Iti's and his criminal cohorts were terrorist and training to overthrow the government violently.
There were 18 of them but only four remained. And now after years of postponement and botched investigations and cover ups all they can agree upon is the fact that some of the weapons were illegal. Wahlidah!
Urewera jury return decisions
Tami Iti's and his criminal cohorts were terrorist and training to overthrow the government violently.
There were 18 of them but only four remained. And now after years of postponement and botched investigations and cover ups all they can agree upon is the fact that some of the weapons were illegal. Wahlidah!
My opinion is that the very fact that John Key got the police go ahead to meet with Tame Iti just weeks before the outrageous attack on the Tuhoe people meant they had absolutely nothing pointing towards a real insurgence or rebellion. What a waste of time and money and energy and what an unnecessary source of stress for those involved and persecuted.
Urewera jury return decisions
A jury has been unable to reach a verdict on whether the Urewera Four were guilty or not of participating in an organised criminal group.
Stuff,
20 June, 2012
However, in the High Court at Auckland today the jury found the four - Tame Iti, Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara, Urs Signer and Emily Bailey - were guilty of some of the 10 firearms charges each faced.
Each defendant, except Urs Signer, was found guilty on five charges of unlawful possession of firearms, and one charge of unlawful possession of a restricted weapon - molotov cocktails.
Signer was found guilty on four charges of unlawful possession of firearms, and one charge of unlawful possession of a restricted weapon.
Each was found not guilty of of four charges each, except for Signer, who was found not guilty on five charges.
Each firearms charge related to a different alleged training camp.
All four were found not guilty in relation to possession of firearms at the November 2006 and April 2007 camps. They were also found not guilty of unlawfully possessing a shotgun at the August 2007 camp.
The jury took nearly 20 hours to come to a decision, after having a three-day break from deliberations because one of the jurors was injured on Friday.
The four accused had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Justice Hansen told the jury during his summing up address last week to ignore the fact that there is intense public interest in the case.
He said the fact that it involved issues of huge importance to Maori was not of their concern.
"There may be two worlds, as Mr Fairbrother, suggested, but there is one law," the judge said, referring to lawyer Russell Fairbrother's comments to the jury during his opening address last week.
The judge spent nearly three hours going over the evidence and arguments in the trial for the jury.
He said the facts in the case were largely undisputed - both sides largely agreed that some form of training exercises took place in the Ruatoki bush between November 2006 and October 2007.
"The critical question is, as [Crown lawyer] Mr Burns put in his closing: what does it all mean? Where was it all leading? What was the end game?"
The Crown's case is that the accused were the ringleaders of alleged training camps preparing the participants for armed combat.
They allege the defendants and others were planning using guerrilla warfare to achieve self-determination in the Tuhoe region if Treaty of Waitangi negotiations with the Crown fell through.
But defence lawyers say the training camps were actually wananga, and the participants were simply learning about bushcraft and firearms skills, in the hope of gaining employment in the security industry in the Middle East or Africa.
For a background a trailer for the film Operation 8 is here
See this from Aotearoa - a Wider Perspective
On the Urewera four, John Key and that secret meeting with Tame Iti two months before his arrest
Travellerev
With the court case against the Urewera 18 4 in progress I thought I’d repost a post I wrote (In atrocious English at the time) in 2008 about a “secret”meeting John Key had at Owhakatoro Marae so far removed from anything there was not even cell phone cover while Tame Iti was under police surveillance and John Key was a known target according to the police statements made after the arrests of Tame Iti and the other suspects.
OK, so the police spends $ 8.000.000,- of tax payers money to investigate alleged “terror activities”in the Ureweras. They have been investigating for over a year. One of the “targets” was; National leader John Key.
And than two months before they decide to invade and arrest the alledged perpetrators, John Key visits an isolated Marae where he meets and speaks with; wait a minute….. the alleged leader of said terror group, Tame Iti. Alone! No police protection! In fact; the police states in writing that the area is save for “target”John Key to travel in and meet with Tame Iti.
I smell something nasty here. No wonder John Key stayed calm when told of the threat on his life. (travellerev)
Questions are being asked over why police did not accompany National Party leader John Key on a visit to the Ureweras when it was known there was an assassination plot against him.
The alleged plot against the National Party leader, and other politicians including the PM, was made public in material published in two daily newspapers on Thursday.
In August Key made a trip to a remote marae in the Ureweras where police say paramilitary-style training camps were operating and firearms and explosives were stored.
ONE News has been told the Diplomatic Protection Squad – which handles security for senior politicians at parliament – knew about the plot.
But they didn’t tell National and in fact provided advice in writing that it was safe to travel to the area.
For more GO HERE
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