There may have been more spying – Dotcom defence

Lawyers for Kim Dotcom have accused Crown Law of failing to provide all the information relevant to recent revelations of illegal spying.

Paul Davison, QC, has told the Auckland High Court the admission the Government Communications and Security Bureau illegally spied on Mr Dotcom raises concerns about the reliability of information Crown Law is disclosing.

Previous court orders have forced the crown to provide Mr Dotcom with relevant evidence relating to his extradition.

Mr Dotcom is concerned that while spying officially started on December 16, it may well have been doing so before that, Mr Davison told the court.

Mr Dotcom was in court today and sat in the public gallery flanked by his wife, Mona, and three co-accused.

The GCSB’s illegal spying was revealed on Monday in a High Court memorandum by crown lawyer John Pike, who in court for today’s hearing.

Mr Davison told the court that in a previous hearing, a police detective inspector gave evidence under oath that there was no other surveillance being undertaken in New Zealand.

“That appears to be inconsistent with what has now been established, that GCSB was engaged in an operation to undertake surveillance of Mr Dotcom.”

He says the inconsistency results in “grave and significant implications” about the reliability of information.

“Given the history of this matter and the progressive way in which disclosure has been extracted from the crown, one can’t be confident that the assurance of complete disclosure that’s been provided is in fact full and complete.

“Enough is enough, is enough,” Mr Davison told the court.

“We have dragged this out in terms of progressive disclosure, and what is making this proceeding an extended one is a failure to have access to a complete set of all relevant materials.”

Mr Pike told the court that Crown Law would get on with the job of supplying the GCSB information to Mr Dotcom’s defence team.

However, a special counsel would need to be appointed to sift through the information to determine which parts of it can be made public.

Chief High Court judge Helen Winkelmann asked Mr Pike how the GCSB could not have known about Mr Dotcom’s immigration status until recently, despite so much media coverage of the fact.

Mr Pike said this would be dealt with in later court hearings.

Justice Winkelmann adjourned today’s proceedings and will set a date for another court hearing, at which more details of the GCSB’s spying activity will be revealed.