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THE PRESS, Christchurch Wednesday, February 15, 2012 NEWS A5 ■ HIGH COURT ■ TE PUNI KOKIRI Boss’s car costs, Urewera Four ‘training to kill’ wife’s travel bill Two boys taken to the Ure- wera training camps blind- Line of fire: folded and forced to the Surveillance film ground at gunpoint are set to footage shows met by taxpayer be the Crown’s star witnesses balaclava-clad in the case against the Ure- people patrolling John Hartevelt wera Four. with rifles. Other Startling surveillance cam- clips showed Taxpayers’ cash was used to era footage was played to the members running fly the wife of a public sector High Court at Auckland yes- with lit molotov boss to an opera, a fashion terday showing balaclava- cocktails and show and to sports awards. clad members of a group appearing to Te Puni Kokiri chief exec- patrolling with rifles, running practise leaving utive Leith Comer also had a with lit molotov cocktails and a car while under towbar fitted to his car and appearing to practise leaving enemy fire. charged thousands of dollars a car while under enemy fire. in petrol to the taxpayer. Crown prosecutor Ross His spending was revealed Burns said most Crown wit- yesterday just days after nesses were police but two In the picture: dozens of jobs were tipped to civilians who attended the Footage of be cut from TPK and as Prime camps in 2007 would testify. Tuhoe activist Minister John Key continued The boys, made to blind- Tame Iti, one of a drive to screw down state Leith Comer fold themselves, were driven the four sector costs. to a secret location where suspects After initially defending Sports Awards, with flights they were dragged from the standing trial. the spending yesterday, charged at $598 and accommo- car and forced to the ground Comer was asked for an dation $275. The charges were at gunpoint, he said. The guns explanation by State Services recorded on December 3. were fired but the boys were tember and October of 2007. While the group might ar- ‘‘He wasn’t playing games One pamphlet gave in- the training camps were al- Commissioner Iain Rennie. Also last year, in January, later told it was an exercise. The four accused and the gue it was legal to use fire- . what he was talking about structions about blowing up legedly held. He asked if they TPK then announced Comer and his wife travelled The case against Tame Iti, now-deceased Tuhoe Lam- arms, there could be ‘‘no was recruiting people to join communications systems as a were really a cohesive group Comer would pay back some to Rotorua for ‘‘Opera in the Emily Bailey, Te Rangikai- bert, a Vietnam War veteran, excuse’’ for molotov cocktails. cells in the city who would be revolutionary technique. and were they really ‘‘train- of the costs, but would not say Pa’’, an event established by whiria Kemara and Urs Sig- were said to be the ringlead- The camps were just part willing to give their lives.’’ Burns said police had in- ing camps’’, or were they how much. Comer’s late uncle Manuhuia ner took shape yesterday with ers, organisers and trainers. of the picture, Burns said, Burns said a communi- tercepted internet chatroom wananga, devoted to teaching ‘‘While he believes there Bennett. A rental car, air- Burns saying the group was Burns said some camps with intercepted chatroom cation from Tame Iti showed conversations between Kema- and learning? was justification for the travel fares, airport parking and ‘‘training to kill’’ for its cause took place in open farmland, logs showing the members he had two plans. ra and an Auckland woman. Iti’s lawyer, Russell Fair- to be paid for by Te Puni accommodation for the couple of Maori governance of the near a marae, schools and speaking of creating ‘‘cells’’ in Plan A was to use diplo- He said Kemara said to brother, denied his client was Kokiri at the time, he now added up to about $1500. Tuhoe region. some houses. the cities. macy but, if that failed, Plan B her: ‘‘No-one wants to kill. involved in a chat-room ex- accepts the perception that it ‘It’s quite important in ‘‘They had the intention of As the video footage was One communication from would achieve their aims ‘‘at We’re training to kill because change attributed to him. was not good use of taxpayer Maoridom that your face is carrying out serious violent played, Burns pointed out Lambert to his brother Kevin the point of a gun’’. we’ll probably have to.’’ Fairbrother said there was funding and rather than go seen,’’ Comer said. offences,’’ he said – ‘‘to com- several of those formerly asked if he had any friends Signer and Bailey orga- Burns said the case was a ‘‘confiscation line’’ near through a protracted debate Further disclosures mit guerrilla warfare’’. charged including Wellington ‘‘ready to give their lives for nised the Wellington partici- ‘‘not about politics’’. Ruatoki, where many Tuhoe on the matter he will reim- showed $1067.52 went on a Intercepted text messages activist Valerie Morse carry- Tuhoe’’. pants and Kemara was the ‘‘In this country, we do not people were pushed off their burse the amount involved,’’ a registration, a towbar and spoke of ‘‘killing the white ing a pistol, Jamie Lockett, Kevin allegedly replied: armourer. prosecute people because of land in 1866. When police written statement said. mats for Comer’s car. ‘‘If it’s eye’’ and ‘‘killing the white Omar Hamed, Trudi Paraha, ‘‘Got two mates. Dumb as f.... He had a valid firearms their beliefs. We prosecute raided the alleged camps, they On October 18 last year, on the return, it’s on the motherf.....s’’. Watene McClutchie, Marama Do anything for me. Can drive licence, and police had footage them for what they do.’’ were dressed in black, looked $218 was charged for air return,’’ Comer said. Documents detailing prac- Mayrick and Iti’s nephew trucks, fly planes, got kids of him loading up his truck Defence lawyers gave brief anonymous, and were armed travel for Comer’s wife to Maori Affairs Minister tice operations were found. Rawiri Iti, all wearing bala- too.’’ with firearms to take to the opening addresses and urged ‘‘head to toe with guns’’, right attend the TPK-sponsored Pita Sharples said that ‘‘in the Police observed ‘‘military- clavas or carrying weapons. Tuhoe Lambert: ‘‘Cheers camps, Burns said. the jury to keep an open mind. on the confiscation line. Style Pasifika event and a Maori world’’ it was often style’’ camps in the Ruatoki Burns said police dis- cuz. The dumber the better.’’ When his house was Christopher Stevenson, for ‘‘You may think that’s a return airfare for $198 was expected that a host would be area, near Whakatane, in covered a recipe for making a Burns said Lambert knew searched, police found litera- Urs Signer, said his client was metaphor for the land in charged three days later. joined by his wife when he November 2006, and in Janu- ‘‘thermite bomb’’ – so violent what he was doing, having ture about revolutions and out of New Zealand during which Mr Tame Iti works, Style Pasifika was billed as invited others and their ary, April, June, August, Sep- it could melt metal. been on two tours of Vietnam. seizing control. about a third of the time that lives and expresses himself.’’ ‘‘two exclusive evenings in wives. the week of Rugby World Cup However, it was ‘‘a big Final 2011’’ that would ‘‘show- question’’ whether or not the case the best of New Zealand taxpayer should fund it. ■ RADIOLIVE SHOW and Pacific innovation and Prime Minister John Key creativity’’. said the Government expected Later in the year, Comer’s transparency and account- wife again flew courtesy of the ability and ‘‘questions would Labour alleges PM’s office advised broadcaster taxpayer to attend the Maori be asked’’. Fairfax NZ Prime Minister John Key’s But in Parliament yester- said he would write to the The email from Key’s office ceived legal advice that the thought they would be of office was ‘‘heavily involved’’ day, Labour deputy leader commission, asking whether said the commission’s advis- show would not break the law interest to people. ‘‘Radio Live in organising his hour-long Grant Robertson revealed it had seen the correspon- ory opinion would give his provided it was an entertain- had sought advice from the radio show before the general emails showing Key’s com- dence between the broad- office and RadioLive confi- ment show with no connec- Electoral Commission, so Man jailed for ‘sex tour’ election last year. munications manager amen- caster and Key’s office. dence. tion to the election. gave me riding instructions to The show has landed ded the RadioLive brief sent ‘‘The prime minister’s When the commission They also reveal RadioLive make sure it was an election- In a New Zealand first, an man making travel arrange- RadioLive in hot water after to the Electoral Commission office was heavily involved in responded two days later wanted the show to become a free zone.’’ Auckland motel and property ments for an undercover the Electoral Commission three days before the show who was on the show, they re- saying it could not make a regular event for every in- The commission found owner has been jailed for org- police officer, who had found it breached the Broad- and drafted a covering email wrote the brief for the show judgment without seeing a cumbent prime minister, but that while the show was not anising a child-sex tour to inquired about having sex casting Act.

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