Police using spies and lies to make case

“The revelations about police use of Rob Gilchrist, a Christchurch-based man to spy on activist groups for more than 10 years is not surprising to many activists – the New Zealand Police have long targeted people involved in legitimate, albeit radical, political action. What is a surprise is that the Police have been willing to use information from a man who is a compulsive liar and a prescription drug abuser” said spokeswoman Sally Darity of the Justice NOW! collective.

“This man has not only participated in illegal activity, including breaking and entering buildings,* but has incited others to do the same, all the while, being paid by Police to report on them. The Police then use this information to make a case to a court of law in order to obtain search warrants and interception warrants and to make arrests” said Sally.

“Gilchrist provided Police with information on at least three of the defendants in Operation 8 – the name for the State Terror raids of October 15th 2007. The police affidavit which was used as evidence to gain interception warrants against these people and many others is filled with ‘informant information’.”

“The ‘informant information’ is not available to the defendants. The identity of the informant is secret. This leaves the defendants in a legal black hole – defending themselves against information they do not have access to, from a person whose credibility cannot be questioned.”

“The exposing of Gilchrist as a police informant is clear evidence of the manufacture of the police case in Operation 8. The Police are desperate to justify their massive ‘anti-terrorism’ budget, so they have branded activists as terrorists. Political protests, including prayer circles outside the US Embassy, are routinely subject to heavy police surveillance. The targeting of political groups should be a wake-up call to everyone who is concerned about the exponential growth of state surveillance and police power at the expense of freedom and justice.”

ENDS

*The Justice Now! Collective has obtained video evidence of Rob Gilchrist, on his own, breaking and entering into Mainland Poultry in 2001