EX-SOLDIER’S APPEAL AGAINST HEAVY COURT MARTIAL SENTENCE

Grey River Argus, 29 March 1948, Page 7

EX-SOLDIER’S APPEAL AGAINST HEAVY COURT MARTIAL SENTENCE

AUCKLAND, March 2-1 A former lance-corporal in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Roy Nicholas Courlander, sentenced in October, 1945, by a general courtmartial at Margate. England, to 15 years' penal servitude, who is at present held at Mount Eden gaol, appeared before Mr Justice Fair in the Supreme Court, Auckland, to-day, under a writ of habeas corpus with a view to his release on the ground that a sentence which a general court marrial could legally impose. Mr N. Wilson and Mr L. B. Inch appeared for the prisoner and Mr G. S. R. Meredith opposed the application. Mr Wilson said Courlander was a member of the Second N.Z.E.F. He was taken prisoner in Greece in 1941. In September, 1944, he made his way through the lines to British forces in Belgium. In subsequent street fighting he was wounded and invaldided to England. He was discharged from hospital and joined the Second N.Z.E.F. in September, 1944.. Counsel sain that in October, 1945, Courlander came before a general court martial, convened by MajorGeneral H. K. Kippenberger, at Margate, on a charge that, having been made a prisoner of war, he voluntarily aided the enemy 7 by joining and working for an organisation known as the British Free Corps. He was found guilty and sentenced. The sentence was confirmed by General Kippenberger, who added directions that the first two y 7 ears should be served in a military prison and for special reasons he should be transferred to New Zealand. BROUGHT TO NEW ZEALAND Counsel said Courlander was placed almost immediately in a transport for New Zealand, where he arrived on December 20, 1945. He was lodged in Wellington gaol and transferred in the following month to Auckland. Counsel submitted that, in the first place, penal servitude was not a sentence which could be legally imposed in the case of a New Zealand serviceman. If it could be imposed, it was mandatory that the sentence be served in the United Kingdom and nowhere else. Thirdly, he submitted that the orders and warrants under which the prisoner was held were invalid in that they failed to give effect to the direction that the first two years be served in a military prison. Counsel cited authorities to support his submission that penal servitude was a sentence abolished in New Zealand and that, under the Army Act, the sentence passed in this case in the United Kingdom made it mandatory for the first two years to be served in a United Kingdom prison. Committed to a civil prison in New Zealand was, he submitted, unlawful. His Honour: Surely the question of a civil prison is raised too late. He has already served two years, the period directed. Mr Meredith submitted that a sentence imposed outside New Zealand was consequently outside the scope of the Crimes Act, which abolished penal servitude for crimes committed in New Zealand. The Crimes Act, he said, could not over-ride the Army Act on military offences. The Prisons Act noted that penal servitude might be served in New Zealand prisons. His Honour reserved his decision,