No prosecution for dodgy military export

Re the No WARP! Update NZ company involved in suspect military export to Israeli Defence Force, the following letter was received today from Marian Hobbs, Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control.

20 May 2005

You may recall that I wrote to you on 11 April, in response to your letter [of 17 February] alleging possible breaches of export control regulations by Oscmar and asking the government to investigate these. You asked to be kept informed of the progress of the investigation.

The New Zealand Customs Service has now completed its investigation into the allegations you made. They have found there is no case to answer, and therefore no further action will be taken.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]

Update: Following her departure from parliament, the former Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control personally apologised to Peace Movement Aotearoa for the official outcome of this investigation, and for the restrictions that MFAT placed on Customs to stop talking to us about the progress of the investigation during the final two weeks. Prior to that restriction, there was regular contact between Peace Movement Aotearoa and the Customs investigators about the contents of the leaked documents we had received and provided to them. It seems from our own enquiries at the time, and from articles such as 'Military-style gear wins export tick', the investigation was impacted by the resumption of New Zealand's diplomatic relationship with Israel.

Positive outcome: One positive outcome of this saga was the subsequent amendment of the Customs and Excise Act 2018 to close any loophole around the electronic export of software or technologies refused an export permit.