Images of masked gunmen allegedly training for an armed rebellion have been revealed in the police video at the centre of the so-called terror raids.
The controversial recordings are key evidence in the Crown case
against the "Urewera Four" who include the well-known activist Tame
Iti.
Iti, Emily Bailey, Urs Signer and Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara deny
charges of illegally possessing firearms and being part of a
criminal group.
For the first time, the Crown has revealed its evidence against the four, in the trial at the High Court in Auckland.
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The Crown case is that the four were training for armed combat, plotting sabotage and preparing for guerilla warfare. They were willing to kidnap, kill and go to war with an arsenal of weapons, the Crown says.
Crown Prosecutor Ross Burns said drills were aimed at using guns to shoot people "and shooting people is a serious criminal offence".
It is alleged the group had a clear agenda.
"They include murder, kidnapping, arson and the use of firearms against police," Burns said.
In the video shown to the jury, gunshots could be heard and men and women could be seen wearing balaclavas and military-style clothing.
The Crown says the gunshots, recorded in the Urewera Ranges, were from the group in training.
Burns said: "Police were able to hear gunshots, numerous gunshots, around 180 to 200 at each of the camps, and commands given which were military commands - 'retreat', 'fire', that type of stuff."
For just over a year police watched and waited, hiding devices in the bush.
"These were tiny little cameras fixed where they couldn't be seen," Burns said.
Along with firearms, computers, diaries, training schedules and a recipe for a bomb were seized during raids in late 2007.
"A thermite bomb is something you make by mixing metal and oxide together and when it burns it gives off so much heat it's capable of melting metal," Burns told the court.
The Crown says Iti was at the centre of the group and that he had plans to self-govern the whole Tuhoe region. The Crown says Iti described the group as a revolutionary army.
Text messages were also intercepted from late 2006. The Crown says a conversation between the late Tuhoe Lambert - who died awaiting trial - talked about recruiting cells and looking for people willing to give their lives for Tuhoe.
The trial comes after 13 others had their charges dropped last year after the Supreme Court ruled the video surveillance obtained by police was unlawful and therefore cannot be used as evidence.
Because the other four face more serious charges, the Supreme Court ruled it can be used against them.
Burns told the jury it is the final four who were pivotal in the group.
"There's one pamphlet which you'll see which it seems was authored by Emily Bailey, strategising for a revolution, which suggested or talked about, among other things, blowing up communication systems as a revolutionary technique," Burns said.
More secret tape revealed what the Crown says is trainers from Baghdad teaching the group to evacuate a vehicle under gunfire
"There is no lawful purpose in the way these people were using the guns," Burns said.
All four plan to fight the case, but first some 88 Crown
witnesses will be called in the coming weeks.
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