Maori activist plans civil action

Press, 27 February 1986, Page 2

Maori activist plans civil action

PA Hastings The Maori activist, Dun Mihaka, plans to take a civil action against the police after he was arrested on Tuesday and detained overnight at the Hastings police station. After Mr Mihaka was released from custody yesterday morning he burst into the courtroom at the Hastings courthouse and interrupted proceedings.!/ ; Mr Mihaka said he would take a civil case of unlawful arrest against the police because the wairant used by the police to arrest him about 2 p.m. on Tuesday had earlier been withdrawn. He was arrested in Hastings about 30 minutes before the Queen and Prince Philip were due at Nelson Park : for the national Maori welcome there.

Detective Senior-Ser-geant Alan Aitken, of the Hastings C. 1.8., said Mr Mihaka had been released from custody and had gone to the courthouse for a means test for payment of fines. He interrupted court proceedings and told Judge Tucker that he had been illegally detained on a warrant

Judge Tucker ordered Mr Mihaka from the courtroom and he was escorted out of the building by four policemen. The court registrar, Mr Evan Gould, said it appeared the warrant for Mr Mihaka should not have been issued, which was the reason he had been released.

Senior-Sergeant Ben White, of the Hastings police, said Mr Mihaka was arrested at 2.15 p.m. on Tuesday on a warrant “for examination as to his means” issued out of the District Court at Wellington.

“On that matter he was examined by the registrar and he was subsequently released,” Senior-Sergeant White said.

The question of whether the warrant was defective, as claimed by Mr Mihaka, was "something for the Justice Department to answer.”