Urewera 4 | Court Report – Day Two – Oct 15 Solidarity

Posted by karere under Maori News

Court started with the crown opening statement – 38 pages of police fantasy and crown fiction complete with a powerpoint – that lasted until the lunch break at 1pm.

In this narrative, crown prosecutor Ross Burns started out by saying that ‘in this country we don’t prosecute people for their political beliefs.’ He then said that politics would be a big part of the case and formed the backdrop of it. He proceeded to lay out sensational parts of the crown case: video footage (illegally obtained), a ‘scenario’ document, some text messages and chat room logs, and lots of police and two “civilian” witnesses.

He said that the four people on trial had the objective of committing ‘serious and violent offences’ – sabotage, kidnapping, etc – along with everyone else he subsequently identified in the footage who was also part of the criminal group. He effectively said that the possession of weapons by everyone was the responsibility of the four accused, irrespective of the fact that in some cases, they weren’t even in the country!

The afternoon was taken up with defence opening statements from Russell Fairbrother (for Taame), Jeremy Bioletti (for Rangi), Christopher Stevenson (for Urs) and Val Neisbitt (for Emily). These were all succinct, as their statements are limited to raising issues arising from the crown’s opening statement. Nevertheless, all gave compelling addresses asking the jury to remain open-minded, to consider the different worlds and contexts in operation in this country – te Ao Maori and te Ao Pakeha, to remember that facts actually need to be facts, not just assertions by the crown, and that at the end of it all, they are not guilty of any crimes.

The crown called their first witness, Detective Inspector Jago, who gave incredibly dry and boring evidence about the placement of illegal and unlawful police video cameras all over Te Urewera.

The jury (and public gallery) was dismissed at 3:30 in order that two applications could be discussed: a site visit to Ruatoki, and witness protection (from the media, e.g. pixellation).

Court resumes with cross-examination of Jago tomorrow at 10am.

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