A New Zealand military court has convicted a soldier of attempted espionage for a foreign power, marking the country’s first-ever conviction for spying.
The serviceman, whose identity and the foreign nation involved remain suppressed by court order, admitted to offering sensitive military information to what he believed was a foreign agent. The person he attempted to contact was, in fact, an undercover officer posing as a foreign operative.
The soldier pleaded guilty to attempted espionage, accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose, and knowingly possessing an objectionable publication.
Among the digital evidence found in his possession were a video recording of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attack and the manifesto of the shooter, white supremacist Brenton Tarrant.
The court heard that the soldier had offered to share military base maps and photographs with the undercover officer. He provided telephone directories of several military camps, including information classified as restricted, and offered an assessment of vulnerabilities at Linton Military Camp, as well as access codes and information that would allow for unauthorized access to the camp and nearby Ohakea Air Base.
The soldier’s motivations for attempting to spy for a foreign power are complex. In an affidavit written by the soldier and read out by his lawyer in court, he admitted to being a member of extremist groups Action Zealandia and the Dominion Movement.
“Both groups were a positive experience for me,” he said, insisting that members never got involved in any untoward activity and that they were “not terrorist groups.”
However, he also stated that he understood why members of those groups were investigated in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings and expressed shock at the attack. The soldier accused investigators of being “aggressive” and “violent” during the probe, claiming he was interviewed in a “very confrontational way.”
“All I wanted to do was leave New Zealand and get to what I thought was safety. That was my only motivation,” the soldier said, wiping away tears as evidence was recounted against him.
His wife also wept, while his father repeatedly leaned forward, his head in his hands. The court martial was before a panel of three senior military officials and a judge and was expected to run for at least two days.
Although the court accepted the soldier’s guilty plea, the process remains ongoing as the panel deliberates on the appropriate sentence, which is expected to be delivered within days.
The conviction marks a significant development in New Zealand’s history, with the soldier being the first person to be convicted of spying by a New Zealand court and only the second to be tried on such charges, after a former public servant was acquitted of espionage in 1975.
The case highlights the country’s commitment to national security and its efforts to prevent espionage.