Greens ask Guardian for Golriz Ghahraman correction after AM Show interview

  • 29/11/2017

The Green Party asked the Guardian to correct an article in which Golriz Ghahraman was described as working as part of the prosecution team in the Rwandan Tribunal.

Ms Ghahraman worked as part of a UN defence team in both The Hague and Rwanda before working as prosecution in Cambodia.

This morning, Duncan Garner asked Ghahraman whether she asked the Guardian to correct an article published 17 October in which she was described as working for prosecution.

"I understand our comms team's written to the Guardian," Ms Ghahraman responded.

The Greens say they got in touch with the Guardian's New Zealand reporter to correct the piece today. It has now been amended.

Ghahraman has rejected criticism that she hadn't been open about her work, insisting it was "necessary, especially if you believe in human rights".

On Tuesday, Gharaman told Newshub she's been victim of an attack from Phil Quin, a former Labour staffer who worked consulting for the Rwandan government 2012-2015. 

He's sent a series of tweets and written opinion pieces on the topic.

"Call me old fashioned, but I think *volunteering* as a 'life changing experience' to defend mass murderers (who had the priciest lawyers in the business) should disqualify one from becoming a member of the NZ Parliament," he tweeted.

Ms Ghahraman said working in defence on such trials is about finding out who did what and to what extent.

"We all came together as people who all wanted genocide to be a crime and to be treated like a crime," she said.

"You want that community to go back to a system of human rights, rather than to go forward and keep having war after war."

The Law Society says lawyers are required to protect their clients from being convicted as far as possible.

"Any criticism of lawyers for defending people charged with heinous crimes is not acceptable," says Law Society president Kathryn Beck.

Newshub.