[asia-apec 1434] Police admit liability for search -- The Press -- Tuesday, April 18, 2000 (http

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            New Zealand News from The Press - Tuesday, April 18, 2000 
    


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              Police admit liability for search
                        
                        Police have admitted liability for the invalid search of a Christchurch lecturer's home eight days after he disturbed Security Intelligence Service agents who broke into a friend's house. 

                        The admission of liability was made public in the Christchurch High Court yesterday in a hearing in which Canterbury University lecturer David Small is claiming $300,000 from the Crown for a police search of his house on July 21, 1996. 

                        The parties dispute the amount of damages that should be paid to Dr Small, who is conducting his own case. It continues today. 

                        Police searched Dr Small's Riccarton house for materials connected with a sophisticated hoax bomb, marked with the words "Apec bomb", found outside the Christchurch City Council building on July 18, 1996. In evidence yesterday, Dr Small said he believed the bomb had been planted by the SIS. 

                        The search was a violation, he said. Even on the best interpretation of the police action, police had shown a cavalier and reckless disregard for his right to be free from an unreasonable search. 

                        It was upsetting to have to tell his employer, his flatmates, and his family that his home would be searched for bomb-making equipment and the incident might have had a long-term effect on his standing at the university, he said. 

                        He was angry and frustrated at being unable to obtain an explanation or apology for the search and had spent a lot of time over the past four years trying to get an explanation. 

                        His anxiety was compounded by his reward for acting in an exemplary way in apprehending a burglar being an illegal house search. 

                        He had only been connected with the bomb, Dr Small said, because on July 13 he had stumbled across the SIS agents after they had broken into the Sockburn home of anti-free trade activist Aziz Choudry. Dr Small caught up with one and stayed with him. 

                        "Had I not apprehended and identified the SIS agent and therefore compromised their operation I would not by any stretch of the imagination have been a suspect for the hoax bomb," Dr Small said. 
                        
                         
             
    




 
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