Colourful life came to tragic conclusion
Sid Hanzlik’s life spanned the globe and encompassed some of the extremes of
20th-century politics.
It ended on the steps of New Zealand’s Parliament last week, in a protest just two days before the general election.
The 60-year-old mechanic, who was born in Czechoslovakia and lived for a time in Taranaki, died in Wellington Hospital early on Friday from injuries he suffered in a small fire on Parliament Grounds the previous day.
Before his death, he posed for photographs outside the High Court in Wellington’s Molesworth St, with placards protesting about his treatment by the Family Court.
Those who took the time to talk to him were told he had separated from his wife, and lost contact with his children.
It was a lonely death for a man who had led a colourful life.
Little is known about his years behind the Iron Curtain, but one friend said he was a marine engineer who had served with the Soviet navy.
He gained New Zealand residency in
1991, and was a mechanic, living in Toko, near Stratford; in Waverley; and in Rotorua.
It is understood he married a Japanese woman, who later moved to Japan with their children. When they lived in Rotorua, he was prevented from seeing his children, who were with their mother in a religious sect, Taranaki-based friend Chum Hasler said.
Hanzlik told Hasler his family had been ‘‘brainwashed’’. ‘‘He would say they were being influenced by the sect.’’
In 2010, while running the garage in Toko, Hanzlik was involved in a dispute over repairs to a 1935 Hillman Minx.
He believed the car’s owner, Mel Cook, owed him $25,000 for the work. Cook declined to comment.
A Toko resident said this week that Hanzlik was a real character, who had extreme political views.
‘‘He polarised people a bit. You either liked him, or you didn’t.’’
On December 17, 2013, Hanzlik was sentenced to supervision for a period of six months, after a conviction on two charges of breaching a protection order.
A special condition was imposed that he complete a counselling programme to assist in avoiding reoffending, as directed by a probation officer.
But he did not want to commit himself to a psychological assessment, and spent 20 days on remand in Waikeria Prison in Waikato before a hearing in the Rotorua District Court in March 2014. He was convicted of failing to report for the psychological assessment, and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within six months.
The following year, he appealed against his conviction to the High Court in Rotorua. Its decision records psychologist Emily Hill, of the Department of Corrections, writing a memo in January 2014 saying there were concerns about Hanzlik’s presentation, and that there was evidence on file to indicate that his personality style was ‘‘narcissistic’’.
Hill said there was evidence of Hanzlik expressing hostility and negative attitudes to those in authority, and specifically females.
However, the court allowed Hanzlik’s appeal. His conviction was quashed, and the charge dismissed.