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Source: ONE News -
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A criminal lawyer says the claim of right defence used by the defendants in the Waihopai sabotage case should not be scrapped.
Justice Minister Simon Power announced yesterday the government will either reform or repeal the claim of right defence.
But Criminal Bar Association of New Zealand president Graeme Newell says the law simply needs to be "tied down".
He told TV ONE's Breakfast programme making the defence applicable only where someone believes they had an interest in the property would "fix the problem".
The claim of right defence is usually used in cases where someone has taken or destroyed property they thought belonged to them, but the Waihopai defendants were able to use it by claiming they were driven by a belief that the station caused human suffering.
"The people who caused the damage at the spy base didn't have any interest in the property whatsoever and weren't claiming that they had any interest in the property.
"They were only claiming that they had a political agenda somewhere in Iraq to prevent people from being injured or killed and so the traditional view relates to the defendant or the accused's interest in the property," says Newell.
Newell says the statute needs to be clarified.
"It has been proven to be too broad and I think that if it was limited to cases where defendants claimed a personal interest or some interest in the property then that would be more realistic and would reflect the developing common law."
