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NZ: Tanczos unlikely to face drug charge
Jonathan Milne The Dominion Post, New Zealand
Friday 20 Dec 2002 Rasta MP Nandor Tanczos is likely to be let off the hook for his self-confessed dope-smoking, sources say. Police are expected to make an announcement this morning in an early Christmas present for the Green MP, alarming Opposition MPs. Should Mr Tanczos be let off, they fear it would set a dangerous precedent, discrediting the police and making it difficult to prosecute other cannabis users. Detective Inspector Harry Quinn is expected to talk today to Mr Tanczos and Craig McNair, the NZ First MP who laid the police complaint. The decision not to prosecute is conditional on the outcome. The inquiry has been through a tortuous path like the Paintergate forgery inquiry into Prime Minister Helen Clark signing her name to works of art done by other people. Mr Tanczos, who has publicly acknowledged using cannabis as part of his Rastafarian religion, was interviewed by Wellington police in the presence of fellow Green MP Metiria Turei, a lawyer. The file was referred to the office of Police Commissioner Rob Robinson and the Crown Law Office, before being sent back to Wellington police. The Paintergate case had a similar outcome: police announced that there was a prima facie case but that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute. ACT NZ justice spokesman Stephen Franks said last night that police should be stringent in enforcing the law against MPs, otherwise it increased cynicism about police and the law. "If they decide against prosecuting, their reasons will have to be very good." He said the announcement just before Christmas showed that they were ashamed of their decision and hoped it would be forgotten by the time Parliament returned. "Simple fairness says you can't let the well-connected, the elite and the high-fliers get away with things that you prosecute poor people for. If you do, you generate such a level of cynicism that you open the door to corruption." Mr Tanczos said the police were in a "lose-lose situation" whatever they did, after wasting so much time on the investigation. "The difficulty is that if they decide to charge me, it makes them look like they're just buying into a fairly petty political move by Craig McNair. "If they don't charge me, they should actually not charge anyone for personal cannabis offences." Mr McNair said he would await the police announcement before commenting.
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