Friar in court over spy base attack

A Dominican friar who attacked a government spy base in the Waihopai Valley in Marlborough last year told a jury in Wellington District Court he could not separate his work as a priest from his social activism.

Peter Murnane, 69, broke into the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) facility near Blenheim last April with Hokianga farmer Samuel Land and Otaki farmer and teacher Adrian Leason. The three men are on trial for cutting through the fences leading into the base, then slashing the plastic cover to a satellite dish.

Murnane took the witness stand today. As he was representing himself, he read to the jury what he thought were the salient points of his case.

"I am not anti-USA. What I have found hard to handle is some of the actions of the US government in the past," he said, going on to list other governments overthrown by what he described as the "Steamroller" superpower.

"I cannot separate my work as a priest from the wider social context," Murnane said.

The men have not denied they carried out the attack, but say they were acting to defend people overseas.

Murnane also told the jury reports of torture, the use of depleted uranium ammunition in Iraq and the killing of innocents pushed him to act.

"I trust the jury will see the connection between our symbolic action at the Waihopai base and these acts of torture committed by US government."

He said the day of the raid, April 29, commemorated the death of St Catherine of Siena, another Dominican activist, in 1380. The saint travelled to France to the then-seat of the papacy to convince the pope to return to Rome, he said.

The men attacked the plastic dome covering the satellite dish with sickles, in a reference to a bible passage calling for the conversion of weapons into farming equipment.

Earlier today, crown prosecutor Glen Marshall completed his cross examination of Murnane's co-accused, Adrian Leason.

When asked why the activists only attacked and attempted to "disarm" one satellite dish, and not another at the site mere metres away, the farmer and part-time teacher said the group wasn't trying to destroy the whole system, only disrupt it.

"So, small violence as opposed to big violence - it is all violence at the end of the day, isn't it?" Mr Marshall countered.

The prosecutor also pointed out at the time of the men's attack, Iraq had held its first election after the war, and asked him if the men had considered whether New Zealand soldiers in Afghanistan were being put at risk.

Leason suggested if the soldiers were rebuilding bridges and schools as the Government said, then the risk they would face was minimal.

The trial is continuing.

- NZPA