Simon Bailey
Rongomai Peropero Simon (Simon) Bailey is a New Zealand activist. He is the (twin) brother of Tim Bailey and Emily Bailey.
Aquittal
Rongomai Pero Bailey (aka) Simon Bailey, age 28 was acquitted of all charges relating to alleged “quasi-military” training camps in the Urewera mountains.
Though police allege that Rongomai Bailey had attended three training camps, Bailey was the only one of 18 remaining defendants to be discharged.
Bailey originally faced four firearms charges, including possession of a rifle and a Molotov cocktail.
Rongomai Bailey, like all the Wellington based arrestees had ties to the anarchist community. He was involved in setting up an anarchist “alternative space” in central Wellington associated with the Oblong Cafe.
Bailey also worked with Emily Bailey and another arrestee Marama Mayrick on the radical film Kotahi Te Ao.
Ostensibly an environmental film, Kotahi Te Ao chronicles Emily Bailey and Marama Mayrick’s visits to foreign radical groups including Mexico’s Zapatista rebels.
Kotahi Ao
Wellington based anarchist Kerry Tankard worked with three of the Urewera 17 Simon Bailey, Emily Bailey and Marama Mayrick, on the anarchist/Green Party supported radical environmentalist film Kotahi Ao.
Urewera camp
2006 November-taken by Rangi Kemara to Urewera training camp.
April 2007 attended Urewera training camp.
August 2007 Urewera training camp.
Arrest/profile
2007, age 28. Out on bail Rongomai Bailey is still determined to open people eyes through the power of film, despite the prospect of potential terror charges being laid against him.
Rongomai Bailey was one of the 17 people arrested in police raids around the country on October 15, 2007. He received bail on and had his name suppression lifted.
Bailey has plans to travel around New Zealand in a film festival, showcasing films on world issues. “I want to make people question what they are told is the truth,” he says.
Bailey was a graphic designer but has also worked as a cameraman including working as a camera assistant - "setting up tripods and basic stuff like that and lugging gear around" - alongside New Zealand director Vincent Ward for a film he is doing on the Tuhoe. In the past he and Vincent have traveled to the Urewera, the area where the alleged “terrorist training” camps are, but Bailey says they did not go to Ruatoki and there is no connection between the camps and Ward.
Concerning his time in jail, Bailey says, has really made the issue come home. “It makes me realize what other people go through” in other parts of the world.
“If we had been in Palestine my mothers house would have been bulldozed. If we had been in America no one would have heard from me and my girlfriend would have been left wondering what had happened.”
“It’s convenient the raids have been the same week the anti terror laws go to Parliament.”
“[New Zealand] is going down the slippery slope… What scares me is how quickly its happening.”
Bailey says that now he has been labeled as a terrorist he won't be able to travel to lots of places around the world. While hoping that the police do not officially lay terrorism charges against him - and the risk of a 14-year jail sentence that could entail - Bailey says he wont be surprised if the Police do proceed.
The Police have said they will be making a decision around now on whether to ask the Solictor General for leave to lay charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act.
Raising the spectre of terrorism is about political control for the Government, he says. "I am not anything vaguely like a terrorist."
In contrast to the heavy police presence in some of the other raids around New Zealand In Bailey's case arrest came with a normal knock on the door at 7.30ish in the morning.
His girlfriend's flat-mate answered the door and went and got him. Bailey then went out to see the police with just a towel wrapped around him.
The police let him get dressed and then they took him away un-handcuffed.
As for after the arrest. “The first night was horrible, I didn’t know what had happened and I hadn’t talked to anyone,” says Bailey.
He says he was very relieved to make bail because he was thinking to himself, “what am I going to do in here, no book, no pen or phone calls.”
Bailey used his first phone-call in prison to ring his girlfriend but unfortunately it went through to an answering machine. He says the prison services people were very professional but were too busy to let him use the phone again.
The other prisoners were a good bunch of people, he says, a lot of them support Maori sovereignty and were supportive of him too. One of Bailey’s first comments when leaving the courthouse yesterday was, “a lot of the people in prison seem like nice guys, they just seem a little lost and there is no help in there for them.”
If Bailey had been refused bail this week he would potentially have had to spend months imprisoned before another chance for release, a trial estimated to be anywhere up to 24 months away. Several other "terror" accused are expected to have bail hearings, name suppression appeals and bail appeals heard in coming days. 07 One of 17 people facing firearms charges in the wake of police anti-terror raids last week has gone public about his time in custody.
Press conference
Rongomai Bailey faced four firearms charges, including possession of a rifle and a Molotov cocktail. held a press conference in central Auckland yesterday, a day after his release from a remand in custody.
On the advice of his lawyer, who was not present, and his media minder, John Minto, who was, Bailey refused to answer questions directly related to the charges against him.
Bail
Rongomai Pero Pero Bailey, 28, unemployed, of Grey Lynn, Auckland, who, was charged with four firearms offences, had his application for bail granted at Auckland District Court.
Defence lawyer Mary Kennedy told the court Bailey would be in grave danger if he was sent back to jail.
She said his co-defendant Jamie Lockett had received injuries while on remand in Mt Eden Prison.
Bailey's bail conditions included surrendering his passport but he doesn't have one; not to contact his co-defendants or Crown witnesses and not to come within 30 kilometres of Ruatoki.
He was ordered to reappear in court on November 1.
His sister, Lucy Bailey, said outside court that her brother had never showed any interest in firearms.
"He's always expressed an interest in peace and peaceful means to help people," she said.
"My brother is a young man who has great integrity and he has always been a very generous person and he looks after everyone around him."
Ms Bailey said her brother was interested in social justice but she was not aware of him being involved with activist groups.
She said her main interest was seeing him after being unable to do so since his arrest.
Other people supporting Bailey in court today included his partner Sassy and John Minto, a peace campaigner best known for his part in the 1981 anti-Springbok tour protests.
Bailey said he'd been advised not to comment on the charges he faced but said his eight days in prison had been "pretty eye-opening".
"It's made me value my freedoms I guess, and understand what happens when they get taken away."
Prosecutor Ross Burns said police had reason to believe Bailey had attended the alleged military-style training camps near Ruatoki three times in the past year and that there was a chance he would follow through with violence should he be released on bail.
He also argued that Bailey could face charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act.
But Bailey's lawyer Mary Kennedy said her client had no previous convictions and the evidence against him was limited.
She said new bail regulations meant there had to be a significant risk of Bailey reoffending or of him interfering with witnesses or evidence, which she argued did not apply in his case.
Ms Kennedy also said there was up to 18 months to any trial and that to keep him in custody that long was unjust.
Judge Bouchier said the charges Bailey faced were serious but that there was little evidence he posed a significant risk or that he was likely to interfere with witnesses or evidence.
She said the fact that Bailey could face charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act, for which approval is needed from the Solicitor-General, would have been important only if he had previous convictions and posed a significant risk.