Extradition delays

Press, 14 February 1986, Page 16

Extradition delays

The Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, should need no prompting to express grave concern to his New South Wales counterpart about the extraordinary delay in the hearing of an extradition application for a man wanted in New Zealand on most serious charges. A New Zealand-born, Indian , faith healer faces prosecution in this country for kidnapping, assault, and unlawful detention of third parties. He has been arrested by Sydney police on a provisional warrant but, as is his right, has elected to fight the extradition application. This is quite unexceptionable; but the Sydney courts, pleading a heavy work-load, have said that the first available date to hear the extradition application is not until January, next year, more than 12 months after the wanted man was arrested. This is not satisfactory. However hard-pressed the Sydney courts might be, kidnapping is a serious offence, ranking second only to murder on both sides of the Tasman. Fairness to the accused, as well as to the complainants, and the proper application of justice require that the issues be resolved more promptly.

All manner of misadventures can conspire over such a long interval to upset the process of law; evidence can go missing, memories fail, and important witnesses may die. The risk of these things happening increases in proportion to the length of the delay. Nor should sight be lost of the fact that delays in the courts can be used in an effort to frustrate the workings of the law. ■ In a quite unrelated and separate case, a person extradited to New Zealand only after protracted proceedings in Australia has now applied to have the serious charges against him dismissed because of the length of time that has elapsed since the alleged offences. Inordinate delays in obtaining a hearing date in Sydney’s courts can only encourage such applications for dismissal. Given the gravity of the charges, Mr Palmer could hardly be accused of attempted queue-jumping if he were to ask that some priority be accorded the extradition hearing. It could do no harm, in any event, if he were to draw the attention of the New South Wales Government officially to this frustration of the process of law in New Zealand.