Police unable to solve Brady burglary case
CHRISTCHURCH: The burgled professor case, already cloudy with diplomatic and espionage intrigue, was yesterday rendered even less clear after police declared they were unable to determine who was responsible.
Canterbury University professor AnneMarie Brady suffered a number of suspicious burglaries in early 2018 that she — and other scholars and intelligence analysts — have said were likely a response to her gaining an international profile mapping China’s international influence campaigns.
The announcement yesterday, made one day before the oneyear anniversary of the highprofile investigation, said police had taken the incidents ‘‘very seriously’’ and conducted a ‘‘lengthy, detailed and extensive’’ inquiry, but been unable to solve the case.
‘‘The burglaries and other matters reported remain unresolved,’’ a police statement said.
Prof Brady said she had been informed of the outcome on Monday and was ‘‘disappointed’’.
While the development was welcomed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, intelligence analysts and private investigators raised concerns that the outcome may have been subject to political pressure and the investigation might have been hamstrung by early missteps.
In February, when news of the burglaries broke, Ms Ardern said she would be ‘‘taking stock and taking action’’ if foreign actors were responsible.
But in Wellington yesterday she sought to draw a line under the matter.
‘‘I said if there was any instance or evidence found of foreign interference, then it would be up to us to act on that. The advice I have seen has been that has not been the case,’’ she said.
Prof Brady emerged as a public figure in late 2017 after publishing her Magic Weapons paper, which uses New Zealand as a case study in mapping out China’s international influence campaigns.
Her work focused on political donations, board appointments for expoliticians and their famil ies, and connections between these and China’s external influence agency, the United Front Works Department.
Following publication, Prof Brady has travelled to brief officials in Ottawa, Washington, London, Canberra and elsewhere.
The burglary of her home on February 14 last year resulted in laptops and a burner phone — used to research the paper — being taken, but other valuables, including jewellery and cash left in the open, were ignored.
The following day, her office was also broken into.
In November her mechanic, unaware of the inquiry, reported he believed her family’s car had been ‘‘tampered with’’ after finding both front tyres had dangerously low pressure.
Intelligence analyst and former University of Auckland lecturer Paul Buchanan said the Brady investigation — alongside whether Huawei equipment should be banned over security concerns — posed a major risk in seriously rupturing the ChinaNew Zealand relationship.
He said the announcement by police defused — for now — that risk, but raised more questions.
‘‘It’s amazingly diplomatic, or cowardly, depending on which way you want to look at it.
‘‘You go almost for a year, in investigating this, and at the end you say you have nothing? Basic questions of competence begin to be raised,’’ he said.
A letter sent to Prof Brady by police on February 19 said the burglary had been ruled a lowvalue crime and had been closed.
The country’s spy agency was not involved in a police investi gation, Police Minister Stuart Nash said yesterday.
Mr Nash said the investigation was an operational matter and he was not aware of the daytoday operation, but he said there was no indication the Government Communications Security Bureau had been involved.
Police on Tuesday refused to make available the officer in charge of the investigation, or anyone, for an interview.
Their comment to date on the case has been limited to a handful of short written statements.
A police spokesman said the February 19 letter was ‘‘sent in error, and this is regretted’’ and rejected the suggestion their investigation had been hamstrung by delays.
‘‘We are satisfied that every forensic opportunity in relation to the investigation has been thoroughly explored and there has been no delay in the gathering of forensic evidence.’’
Mr Buchanan said while police had been unable to reach conclusions in the case, the New Zealand Security and Intelligence Service might have.
‘‘If suspicions were raised it was agents of the Chinese state — that’s an NZSIS counterintelligence job. That’s, pure and simple, what they’re supposed to do.’’
An NZSIS spokesman declined to address its role in the Brady investigation.
It was previously reported its involvement included having swept Prof Brady’s home and office for bugs.
‘‘The NZSIS has a longstanding practice of not commenting on what may or may not be operational issues,’’ the spokesman said. — NZME