Suspended Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde has raised serious concerns after claiming that Fijian government agents allegedly conducted surveillance outside his Christchurch home last month, questioning his neighbour about his whereabouts and family.
Mr Pryde said the incident occurred on 17 November, a day after he returned from Dunedin following his mother’s funeral.
His neighbour informed him that three men had been sitting in a car outside his house for some time.
“One of the men, who identified himself only as ‘Tony’, approached my neighbour and questioned him about my whereabouts and asked other personal questions concerning my wife and daughter,” Mr Pryde said in a statement issued yesterday.
According to Mr Pryde, the neighbour became suspicious and asked about the other two men in the car.
After initial hesitation, “Tony” allegedly confirmed they were “agents of the Fijian government” and told the neighbour not to inform Mr Pryde of their visit.
Troubled by the encounter, the neighbour later approached local Member of Parliament Hamish Campbell to report the incident.
Mr Pryde said he also visited his MP the following day to express his “extreme discomfit that such incidents should be allowed to occur on New Zealand soil.”
He was advised to file a police report, which he has since done.
“I am greatly concerned that officials from the Fijian government should be permitted to conduct surveillance on my house and accost my neighbours with personal questions about me and my family,” he said.
In court yesterday, FICAC lawyers informed Magistrate Yogesh Prasad that it had sent officers to New Zealand to serve papers on Mr Pryde in relation to his extradition to Fiji.
