No Deportation Order

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32313, 3 June 1970, Page 30

No Deportation Order

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, June 2,

Freddy Decherf, the French Foreign Legionnaire who asked for political asylum in New Zealand, will not be deported under an order from the Auckland Magistrate’s Court.

Decherf. aged 24, first appeared in court three weeks ago, charged with stowing away in the liner Akaroa at Papeete, Tahiti. He admitted the charge but asked for political asylum. Today he was sentenced to seven days imprisonment by Mr C. E. H. Pledger, S.M. Mr M. P<. Williams, who appeared for Decherf, today presented to the Court identification papers which Decherf was carrying when he entered New Zealand. They stated that his name was Francois Du Champ, and that he was born in Switzerland. Mr Williams said the question for the Court to decide was one of an appropriate penalty. He submitted that it would be unnecessary and unsuitable for the Court to exercise its discretion in favour of deportation. He said the maximum penalty for stowing away was one month’s imprisonment, or a $4O fine, and the option of deportation. Decherf had been in custody since his first appear-

ance three weeks ago, Mr Williams. said. An appropriate penalty would be a sentence of seven days imprisonment, which, with the three weeks he had already spent in prison, would constitute the maximum penalty.

Such a sentence would also give Decherf an opportunity to present his case in another area before different authorities, Mr Williams said. The Crown Solicitor (Mr S. B. W. Grieves) said he had been instructed by the Immigration Department to advise the Court that it did not wish to make any submissions on the matter. He said the department felt the question of penalty was for the Court to decide, but it would take whatever action

it decided was necessary under the Immigration Act. The Magistrate said the thought arose quite early that the Court should not seek to intrude on the Immigration Department in its considerations as to whether Decherf should be spared. “Decherf’s papers show him to be a Swiss national," the Magistrate said. “If someone were to insist that I make a deportation order at this moment I still would not know exactly what to do, because it is not certain which country he is to be returned to.” On sentencing Decherf, the Magistrate said the Immigration Department was free to consider the whole case as it felt fit.