Crown plans new Urewera charges

The Crown is preparing to lay fresh charges against five of the 17 people arrested after anti- terrorism raids in the Bay of Plenty.

Prosecutor Ross Burns said the Crown planned to charge Tame Iti, Tuhoe Lambert, Whiri Kemara, Swiss national Urs Signer and Wellington's Emily Bailey with participating in an organised criminal group. The charge carries a maximum jail term of five years.

The move was revealed yesterday when the Crown lodged an application to have the trials of the 17 accused transferred from a district court to the High Court.

Mr Burns said there were legal issues to be argued, including the admissibility of evidence, that could be dealt with only in the High Court.

Attached to that application was a provisional indictment which specified the additional charges the Crown was wanting to lay against the named five, he said.

The decision to lay extra charges was made after "a proper consideration of the evidence that came out during a depositions hearing" last month, he said.

"We served the draft indictment to let everyone know as soon as possible what the Crown's position was going to be."

But Mr Burns stressed the indictment was a draft only, and that the extra charges were still subject to further consideration and discussion.

Police initially tried to charge 12 of the 18 accused under the Terrorism Suppression Act after a police operation in the Ureweras and other locations, but its application was denied by the solicitor-general, who said the act was inadequate for a domestic situation.

Auckland District Court judge Mark Perkins ordered 17 of the accused to stand trial on about 300 firearms charges but dismissed all charges against Rongomai Peropero Bailey, the Auckland-based brother of Emily Bailey.

Mr Bailey's identical twin brother, Ira, is also facing firearms charges.

Charl Hirschfeld, who is representing Kemara, said last night that he was yet to receive formal notification of the new charge.

He said that, if the Crown intended to lay such a charge, he would expect to receive an indictment within the next few weeks.

Lambert's lawyer, Kahungunu Barron- Afeaki, said: "It's sour grapes on the face of it."

He was disappointed that the possibility his client may face additional charges had been aired publicly.

"It's interesting that they made that public, you either charge someone or you don't."

Emily Bailey's lawyer, Val Nisbet, declined to comment on the matter.

A lawyer for Iti could not be reached.

Missing woman's sister discharged

Meanwhile, the sister of missing Auckland woman Iraena Asher has been discharged without conviction on a firearms charge laid following police raids in the Urewera Range.

Tamara Asher, 26, appeared in Auckland District Court for sentencing yesterday on one charge of illegal possession of a weapon.

The only one of the Urewera accused to plead guilty, she was discharged without conviction. Judge Graham Hubble refused to continue name suppression.

Her older sister, Iraena, disappeared from Piha on October 10, 2004, after making a 111 call to police in which she said she was being followed. A police dispatcher sent a taxi to pick her up.

The Ashers' family home in the West Auckland suburb of Massey was searched by police on October 15 last year.

At the time, the family said police rifled through Iraena's room, which had been kept the way she left it. At the end of the three-hour search, police left with an old passport belonging to Tamara.

Tamara had visited whanau in the Ruatoki Valley, including Tame Iti, several months earlier.

- © Fairfax NZ News