An anti-vaccination campaigner who this year became the first person ever accused of breaching New Zealand’s sabotage laws has again appeared in court.

Taupō man Graham Philip was charged with seven counts of sabotage in May, relating to an alleged attack on New Zealand infrastructure late last year. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The exact details of what the Crown alleges remain suppressed until trial, due to what Open Justice understands is a fear of copycat offending.

Philip appeared via audio-visual link in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday, sitting calmly in the booth as his lawyer addressed Justice Graham Lang.

Philip’s previous lawyer Matthew Hague has withdrawn from the case, with Philip now represented by Tauranga lawyer Bill Nabney.

Philip is currently held at Waikeria Prison in Waikato after his bail application was denied earlier this year.

A planned Court of Appeal challenge to the bail decision has been abandoned and Philip will remain in prison until his trial, set down for late next year.

Sabotage defined
Under the Crimes Act, sabotage is legally defined as any activity which impairs or impedes the operation of “any ship, vehicle, aircraft, arms, munitions, equipment, machinery, apparatus, or atomic or nuclear plant” on New Zealand shores.

A person can also be charged with sabotage if the person “damages or destroys any property which is necessary to keep intact for the safety or health of the public”.

A conviction also requires a proven intent to prejudice the health or safety of the public.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald under the Public Interest Journalism Initiative funded by NZ on Air.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The 16 protesters at Waikeria Prison have surrendered to authorities after a six-day stand-off.

The news that the men had ended the stand-off came in a statement from Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi, who said he escorted the prisoners out about 12pm today.

Waititi said the prisoners were ready to come down.

“Naturally, they were tired and hungry but still very determined to see change.

“They have achieved what they set out to do when they embarked on bringing attention to their maltreatment in prison.”

Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis said the men received food and water and would soon be transported to other prisons around the country.

A plume of smoke could still be seen rising from the fire-damaged buildings at Waikeria Prison this morning.

The 16 inmates had been protesting at the prison since Tuesday, when several fires started.

Widespread destruction
Corrections has said there had been widespread destruction of buildings and property, and the men had acted violently.

But the men had said they were protesting against unacceptable conditions at the prison, after complaints about inhumane treatment had not been listened to.

Davis said the protesters had done a lot of damage to the part of the prison they were in and it was now unusable.

The arson, violence and destruction carried out by the men were reckless criminal acts, and the responsibility for laying charges was with police, he said.

There were many legitimate avenues for prisoners to raise concerns about their conditions, Davis said.

Five of the men involved in the disorder are deportees from Australia, and three are subject to returning offender orders because of their criminal convictions.

At a press conference this afternoon, Davis said he was involved from the outset, but wanted to give professionals the space, time and resources to do their ob.

‘True hero’ negotiators
He said the “true heroes” were the negotiators who spent six days at this site working with the prisoners.

Davis said he had noted before that he did not like the state of the upper part of the prison, but that did not excuse the actions of the protesting inmates.

He said he had “total confidence” all prisoners across the network were being looked after in accordance to the Corrections Act.

Department of Corrections chief executive Jeremey Lightfoot said there was “no excuse” for what the men did, and there were multiple ways for prisoners to complain, including to the Ombudsman.

“Let me be clear, there are many channels to complain,” he said.

Lightfoot said it was not appropriate to take this action as a way of complaining, and it was a criminal act.

He said he was proud of the collaboration between Corrections staff, police and other emergency colleagues, as it was a very complex matter in a dangerous area that took a lot of effort and planning to ensure it was resolved safely.

Prisoners’ supporters on site
Several family members of the prisoners were outside the gates again today and were calling for a peaceful end to the protest.

One told RNZ that their cousin who was protesting did not care if he lived or died, because he was standing up for his rights.

She said he had become fed up with conditions in the jail, and was determined to stick it out.

“He was agitated, he was hungry, he was thirsty… but he said he’d stick it out… at least he knows he’s standing up for his rights and the rights of others who are going to be incarcerated in this prison.”

The woman said her cousin was only on remand for non-payment of fines and had a 6-month-old baby at home.

Corrections had said the men have been given opportunities to negotiate, and would not be given water unless they surrendered.

In a statement earlier this morning, Corrections said the situation remained “incredibly volatile”.

“The prisoners have continued to light fires within the facility overnight, make threats toward our staff and police and throw debris at them from the roof of the buildings.

“Our options for intervention are limited due to the dangers present.”

Waititi, who previously tried to negotiate with the prisoners at their request, had said an Ombudsman’s Report, published in August, supported the men’s claims about the conditions at the prison.

He has called on the government to resolve the situation and end basic human rights breaches.

He said today that while people that do crime must serve their time, they must also be treated in a just and humane way.

“Even prison guards acknowledged to us that the state of the unit was unacceptable.

“These men are not animals, they are humans; they are brothers, fathers and sons and are deserving of better treatment.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Amnesty International is calling on New Zealand’s Corrections Minister to ensure force is not used to end the impasse at Waikeria Prison – where 16 inmates are entering a sixth day of protest.

The human rights group said de-escalation techniques should be used to end the protest.

It said the protesters had already raised concerns about poor treatment, and the use of excessive force and withholding food and water would make things worse.

Sixteen inmates are now in their sixth day of a protest that began on Tuesday at the prison, near Te Awamutu.

Significant damage had been done to the “top jail” facility, after fires in several places during the protest.

Amnesty also wanted Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis to end what it described as “dehumanising practices” at Waikeria, and to launch an inquiry into the state of the country’s prison system.

Relatives of the men protesting have told RNZ the men are trying to raise awareness of conditions they describe as “inhumane’”, including brown drinking water, lack of toilet paper and clean bedding, and cramped overheated cells.

Significant damage
But Department of Corrections Incident Controller Jeanette Burns said the men’s actions were violent, and they had caused significant damage to buildings and property, and were making weapons to use against staff.

Attempts to negotiate their surrender had been made, but had not resolved the situation, and water would only be provided to them on their surrender, she said.

However, a former inmate of Waikeria told RNZ he feared that once the current protest was put down, the long term problems at the jail would not be addressed.

Billy McFarlane now runs the Puwhakamua Programme for high-risk offenders in Rotorua.

He said unrest had been brewing over prison conditions around the country for some while, and something had to give.

But he was worried for the men involved.

‘Suffer the wrath of the system’
“They’re all going to get charged, they’re probably all going to end up in maximum security, they’re probably all not going to get paroled,” he said.

“They’re going to suffer the wrath of the system and then slowly this whole problem will probably go under the mat again.”

McFarlane said he remembered complaining about the same thing himself, in the 1980s.

He felt New Zealand prisons do not do enough to rehabilitate prisoners or reintegrate them back into society.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz