Hon. Tony Ryall MP
National Party Law and Order Spokesman

23 September 2005

Free trips for bomb hoaxers

“It is barmy to give free trips home to bomb hoaxers without any punishment,” says National’s Law and Order spokesman Tony Ryall, and he wants Labour to explain why this has happened.

He is commenting on a report in today’s Bay of Plenty Times of a police decision not to prosecute the man who threatened to blow up a building in Tauranga last week, and instead give him an air ticket and an escort back to Slovenia. It was reported at the time that Jakob Slevec could not afford the fare home and wanted to commit a crime so he would be deported.

He appeared in court on September 16 charged with burglary and threatening to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.

”It’s barmy to give free trips home to bomb hoaxers. What sort of message does that send?” Mr Ryall says.

“This decision tells lonely stranded foreigners that if you threaten to blow up a building then the Labour government will give you a free ticket home.

“Slevec should have faced the normal course of justice with punishment if found guilty. He should be facing justice here to discourage himself and others from doing this again.

“This man has cost Tauranga a lot of money and he is simply flying away.

“It is estimated the incident cost Tauranga businesses at least $500,000, not including wages for unproductive downtime, inconvenience, and lost opportunities, or the cost of the police operation.

“And most businesses are unlikely to be able to make insurance claims for lost income because, according to the Insurance Council, most policies have ‘terrorist exclusions’.

“It’s about time Labour woke up and stopped being such a soft touch,” Mr Ryall says.

ENDS

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