PM keen for answers over Czech smuggler
The investigation into the residency of a Czech drug smuggler hasn’t been good enough, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.
Ardern made the comments while addressing news media in Dunedin yesterday ahead of her first Labour annual conference speech as the party’s leader this weekend. Her Immigration Minister Iain Lees-galloway has come under fire for granting residency to Czech national Karel Sroubek – a convicted drug smuggler, immigration fraudster and known gang associate wanted in the Czech Republic for allegedly injuring a police officer.
There were reports the Czech Republic would request his extradition. But a spokesman for Justice Minister Andrew Little said no formal request had been received.
Ardern said three weeks was too long for the investigation, and she wanted answers ‘‘as quickly as possible’’. ‘‘My expectation is that it is done very quickly, because from what I’ve seen this hasn’t been good enough.’’ If it was found Immigration NZ was not passing on the relevant information to the minister ‘‘we would absolutely need to rectify that, and to get to the bottom of that’’. ‘‘But for me, it is about resolving this particular issue and then see if there was a systemic issue at play.’’ The minister could only deal with the information before him, Ardern said. ‘‘It seems clear on the face of it that there is some contradictory information.’’
She had spoken with the minister, and the expectation was the information had to be reviewed quickly, within three weeks.
His information contradicted what was in the public domain, and she said the minister had gone back to his department to reconcile those differences.
Ardern is due to address the Labour Party conference at the Dunedin Town Hall on Sunday. The conference starts today.