After nearly four and a half years, the trial of four people on charges in connection with the 2007 Urewera police raids is finally set to start.
Prominent Tuhoe activist Tame Iti, Te
Rangikaiwhiria Kemara, Emily Bailey and Urs Signer stand trial in the High
Court in Auckland
today, facing charges of participating in an organised criminal group and
firearms charges.
This is a timeline of events leading up to today's trial:
October 15 2007
Police raided homes across New Zealand in relation to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp deep in the Urewera mountain range, near the town of Ruatoki in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Seventeen people were arrested following the raids in Auckland, Wellington, Palmerston North, Hamilton, Christchurch, Whakatane and Ruatoki.
The raids were the culmination of a year-long investigation into alleged weapons training camps and netted a haul of weapons.
October 25 2007
Politicians clashed over their views of the raids, with criticism coming from Maori and Green MPs.
October 27 2007
Up to 1000 people, including politicians, joined activists in a march to Auckland's Mt Eden Prison to protest against the police raids. The arrested people were being held in the prison.
December 2007
All the accused were remanded on bail, some having been in jail for four weeks.
October 2008
Seventeen of the 18 people charged after the raids were told they would stand trial in 2009.
Initially police wanted to charge some of the accused under 'terrorism' legislation, but they were over-ruled by the Solicitor-General and instead faced a variety of firearms or drugs charges.
December 2009
A date was fixed for the High Court trial of 18 people caught up in the Urewera police raids – August 8 2011.
May 2011
The trial for the raids due to start on May 30 was delayed until February 2012.
Documentary Operation 8 investigating how and why the raids took place opened in cinemas around the country.
September 2011
Firearms charges against 13 of those accused in the Urewera raids were dropped because police gathered evidence illegally.
The Supreme court ruled covert filming on Maori land in the Ureweras was unlawfully obtained.
The four remaining defendants still faced charges after the court ruled they were serious enough to warrant using unlawfully gathered evidence. They were Emily Felicity Bailey, Tame Wairere Iti, Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara and Urs Peter Signer
The Court ruled the four accused would face trial by jury.
A group of protesters gathered outside court vowing to continue their action until charges against the remaining four were thrown out too.
February 13 2012
After nearly four and a half years, the trial of the remaining four people on charges in connection with the 2007 Urewera police raids was finally set to start.
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