March 15, 2018
NZ Independent Police Conduct Report Slams Exit Illegal Roadblock
NZ Independent Police Conduct Authority & the NZ Privacy Commissioner have today slammed the roadblock mounted by NZ Police as part of Operation Painter. Operation Painter was the undercover Police investigation that led to Exit’s Wellington Chapter Coordinator being charged with drug offences and assisting a suicide. The Roadblock was not only a breach of the privacy of elderly Exit Members who attended the Lower Hutt pot-luck lunch but it was unlawful.
The Judge overseeing the investigation stated: ‘It was an illegitimate use of police power that unlawfully restricted the right of citizens to freedom of movement.’
The report states that the unlawful checkpoint took advantage of the public’s trust in the NZ Police and caused harm to the Exit Members involved.
WATCH: Police Inspector Paul Basham speaking about their euthanasia checkpoint
Ironically the ‘welfare visits’ that were undertaken as a result of the personal information gathered at the checkpoint was found not to be unlawful because it was carried out in good faith.
However, as one woman who was visited by police said the welfare visit “seemed patronising to elderly people”.
‘I mean, why should, just because one’s 85, one be assumed to be kind of helpless and weak and pathetic and needing comforting police to come and pat you on the back? reports the New Zealand Herald.
Speaking from Amsterdam, Exit Founder & Director Dr Philip Nitschke said he welcomed the IPCA’s and the Privacy Commissioner’s findings.
‘It is unthinkable in this day and age that the NZ Police can operate in such a subversive and dishonest manner and get away with it’ he said.
‘Wellington is not Moscow and the NZ Police are not the KGB. Such underhand and downright dishonest tactics have no place in NZ civil society’.
In February, Dr Nitschke sat through the assisted suicide trial of Exit’s Wellington Chapter Coordinator, Suzy Austen.
While a High Court jury found Suzy ‘not guilty’ of assisted suicide, she was found guilty of 2 counts of importing Nembutal.
Susan austen press conference
Evidence from the illegal roadblock was used in court to convict Suzy!
Sentencing is due on 11 May.
Further Media Reports on the Police Conduct Authority’s findings can be found here: