23 Dec 2014
KIM DOTCOM v HER MAJESTY'S ATTORNEY-GENERAL [2014] NZSC 199
- Citation
- [2014] 1 NZLR 745
- Court
- Supreme Court
The Supreme Court (majority) held the mutual assistance search warrants were not nullities or unlawful general warrants; although they contained deficiencies and used the wrong prescribed form, those defects were defects of form which did not cause a miscarriage of justice in the factual context (including contemporaneous arrest warrants, explanations and police briefings) and were therefore saved by s 204 of the Summary Proceedings Act 1957; the issuing judge's discretion to impose conditions is not mandatory and absence of conditions did not render the warrants invalid in the circumstances.