Court decision on 501 deportee set to force rethink by Parliament

It is a decision that will force Parliament to clarify the law and/or appeal against the decision because it could have implications for many of the other 501 former prisoners. The judge implied that unless Parliament had specifically stated it wanted a retrospective law, she would rely on the common law principle of retrospective penalties not applying. The judge quashed the original decision by New Zealand authorities to class the former prisoner as a returning prisoner under the Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Act 2015. She ordered the police to remove his fingerprints from the national fingerprint database, remove his photograph from its database and remove his DNA from the national DNA database. “Police are considering the implications of the judgment alongside Ara Poutama Aotearoa – Department of Corrections and are consulting with Crown Law.”