Protests over ‘please walk on me' flag artwork prompt its removal from New Zealand gallery — again
The Suter Art Gallery in the city of Nelson said Thursday it had taken down the work by Māori artist Diane Prince due to escalating tensions and safety fears. The episode mirrored an Auckland gallery's removal of the work amid public backlash and complaints to law enforcement in 1995.
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Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
NZ soldier sentenced to two years' detention for attempted espionage
A military court sentenced a New Zealand soldier on Wednesday to two years' detention for attempting to spy for a foreign power. The soldier, whose name has been suppressed, admitted to attempted espionage, accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose and knowingly possessing an objectionable publication. He was ordered into military detention at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch and will be dismissed from the New Zealand Defence Force at the end of his sentence. His admission and its acceptance by the court marked the first spying conviction in New Zealand's history. The soldier will be paid at half his previous rate until his dismissal at the end of his sentence, the defence force told AFP. According to information provided to the court, he previously earned NZ$2,000 (US$1,600) a fortnight. The court martial at Linton Military Camp near Palmerston North heard the soldier gave military base maps and photographs to an undercover officer posing as an agent for a foreign nation. During the investigation, he was also found to have copies of a livestreamed video of the March 2019 killing of 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch by white supremacist Brenton Tarrant. - 'Harm to the world' - The soldier became a person of interest after the Christchurch attack because he was a member of some right-wing groups that police were cracking down on, the court heard. While monitoring him, the New Zealand government became aware he had "made contact with a third party, indicating that he was a soldier who was wanting to defect", according to an agreed summary of the facts read out by the prosecution. The military court has permanently suppressed the identity of the foreign nation. Chief Judge Kevin Riordan said the soldier "intended to prejudice the security and defence of New Zealand". A military panel agreed the worst of his offences was the sharing of passwords, an identity card, and access codes to Linton Military Camp and the air force's Base Ohakea, the judge said. "You were actively searching for things to supply to someone you thought was a foreign agent," Riordan said. Of the man's video of the Christchurch killings, the judge said: "Keeping the message of a gross murderer is a harm to the world in itself." The court martial was held in a large, cold hall at Linton, with banners carrying New Zealand Army slogans of "courage", "commitment", "comradeship" and "integrity". "You have comprehensively breached all of these values," Riordan told the soldier. The chief judge expressed concern over how the sentence would be perceived given that military detention is widely considered to be easier than civilian prison. - 'No remorse' - The military panel determined a starting point of between 3.5 and 4 years prison and gave deductions for the man's guilty plea and time spent under open arrest. "We spent more time over this decision than any other," Riordan said. The panel decided military detention was appropriate given the rehabilitation it would provide. Crown lawyer Grant Burston had earlier told the court the soldier's sentence should start at between 4.5 and 5 years in prison. "There is no apology," Burston said, referencing the soldier's affidavit, which was read to the court. "There is just expressed regret and a well-established expression of grievance. "There is no remorse for betraying... his country." Defence lawyer Stephen Winter said that although the offences were serious, they were "at the bottom end of offending for this particular charge". "He has grown out of that phase of his life. He is now a husband... a father," he said. The soldier was arrested in December 2019 and had spent all but six days since then under what the New Zealand Defence Force called open arrest. He was required to live on an army base in a military house and was subject to a curfew. The soldier had been suspended on full pay, earning nearly US$204,000 (NZ$350,000) since his arrest. During that time, he married and had two children. His wife is expecting a third child. The New Zealand Defence Force declined to say whether his family would be provided housing during his detention. bes/sft/djw/cwl Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
6 hours ago
- New York Times
Talking Past Each Other in Israel
Most Saturday evenings, my wife and I join a silent vigil in Tel Aviv where each participant holds a photograph of a Gazan child killed in recent Israeli Defense Force attacks. There are a lot of them. We stand for an hour. Some passers-by stop to look at the pictures and read the children's names; others throw out a curse and keep walking. Strangely, unlike at many antigovernment protests I attend, where I feel a bit pointless, at this vigil I do feel of some use. It's not much, but I am creating an encounter between a dead child and the gaze of a person who didn't know that child existed. On a recent Saturday, the vigil was more charged than usual. Hamas had just released a monstrous video showing the skeletal Israeli hostage Evyatar David digging his own grave upon his captors' orders. A few people stopped as they walked past us. A man wearing swim shorts stared at me and asked me if I had seen the video: 'He's your people. It's his picture you should be holding. His!' Another woman stopped and yelled at us: 'It's all Hamas propaganda! Don't you get it? Those kids — It's all A.I. They're not real!' It would have been easy for me to argue, to find myself condescending to these people's claims. But because the vigil is silent, I was forced to just look at them and keep quiet. I've never been very good at keeping quiet. In some ways I'm like the running commentary on a director's cut, with an answer or explanation for everything. I used to feel like the only one who did that, but now that social media is everywhere, it seems the whole world has become like me. The man in the swim shorts tried to get a verbal response out of me, and when he failed, he quickly recalibrated and realized he could keep talking unhindered. His attempt to stir up an argument soon turned into a peculiar blend of internal monologue and Facebook post. He spoke about loss, and enemies, and this country of ours and what the hell has become of it, and about the hostages and his reserve duty and his nephew who's serving in Gaza. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
A soldier admits to attempted espionage in New Zealand's first spying conviction
A soldier admits to attempted espionage in New Zealand's first spying conviction WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand soldier who tried to spy for a foreign power has admitted to attempted espionage in a military court. Monday's conviction was the first for spying in New Zealand's history. The soldier's name was suppressed, as was what country he sought to pass secrets to. Military court documents said the man believed he was engaged with a foreign agent in 2019 when he tried to communicate military information including base telephone directories and maps, assessments of security weaknesses, his own identity card and log-in details for a military network. The wording of the charge said his actions were 'likely to prejudice the security or defense of New Zealand.' He wasn't speaking to a foreign agent, but an undercover New Zealand police officer collecting intelligence on alleged right-wing extremist groups, documents supplied by the military court showed. The soldier came to law enforcement attention as part of an operation that was established after a March 2019 terrorist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch, when an Australian white supremacist opened fire on Muslim worshipers, killing 51. Officers spoke to the man twice about his involvement in a group, court documents showed, and after the government became aware he had expressed a desire to defect he was contacted by the undercover officer. When the soldier's hard drive was searched, investigators found a copy of Christchurch gunman Brenton Tarrant's livestreamed video of his massacre and a manifesto document he published online before the killings. Possession of either without permission is a criminal offense in New Zealand and the soldier, who admitted that charge too, joins several others convicted in New Zealand of having or sharing the terrorist's banned material. In a statement read to the court by his lawyer, the man said the two nationalist groups with which he was involved were 'no more than groups of friends with similar points of view to my own,' according to Radio New Zealand. The laywer, Steve Winter, added that his client denied supporting the Christchurch shooter's ideology, RNZ reported. The soldier — who was based at Linton Military Camp near the city of Palmerston North — also pleaded guilty to accessing a military computer system for dishonest purposes. The amended suite of three charges replaced 17 counts levelled against him earlier in the proceedings. Each of the three charges he admitted carries a maximum prison term of either seven or 10 years in New Zealand. His sentence was expected to be delivered by a military panel within days after Monday's conviction. The man had been due to stand trial by court-martial on the charges before he admitted the offenses. His was the first charge in a New Zealand military court for espionage or attempted spying. The last time such a case reached the civilian courts before was in 1975, when a public servant was acquitted on charges alleging he had passed information to Russian agents. A spokesperson for New Zealand's military said they would not comment until the proceedings against the soldier finished. Charlotte Graham-mclay, The Associated Press
