JUDGE TO SPEAK OUT ON CANNABIS CASE

AUCKLAND -- The judge who discharged without conviction a billionaire
American facing drugs charges, and suppressed his name, will make a public
statement about the case today.

The statement by Judge David Harvey is due to be made at the Otahuhu
District Court at 2.15pm.

The billionaire appeared in Judge Harvey's court on January 6 and 7 on
three charges of importing more than 100g of cannabis resin and plant.

Yesterday, there were three High Court hearings on the New Zealand Herald
newspaper's application to overturn the man's name suppression.

At the first hearing at 9am the court began considering an appeal by the
man's lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg, to prevent the Herald seeing her submissions
on the man's case.

Ms Dyhrberg asked for an adjournment of her appeal to allow time for the
Crown and police to decide if they wanted to be heard on the issue and the
case was adjourned until 1pm.

At the second hearing in the afternoon Justice Williams dismissed Ms
Dyhrberg's application for adjournment and decided to hear her appeal at 4pm.

Shortly afterwards, Ms Dyhrberg appealed against the Herald's right to
apply to overturn the billionaire's name suppression in the Otahuhu
District Court following Judge Stan Thorburn's ruling last week.

At the third hearing at 4pm Justice Williams heard arguments from Ms
Dyhrberg and Herald lawyer Campbell Clark, and reserved his judgment until
9.30am today.

Yesterday's developments mean the Herald's application to publish the name
of the billionaire will not be heard until next week at the earliest.

Ms Dyhrberg argued that the Herald's right to see her written submissions
depended on the outcome of her appeal disputing whether or not the Herald
had legal standing to apply to overturn the name suppression.

Her submissions included sensitive issues that, if published, could have a
"quite unfair" consequence, Ms Dyhrberg said.

But Mr Clark said any member of the public had the right to apply to
inspect a court file, and the Herald needed to see the submissions to
properly prepare for its application to overturn the court order.

Today's statement by the judge will be filmed by TV3.