A New Zealand soldier has made history for all the wrong reasons, becoming the first person in the country ever convicted of espionage. His punishment: two years in military prison, followed by dismissal from the Army.
The unnamed soldier pleaded guilty this week to three charges, including attempted espionage, after admitting he tried to pass sensitive military information to what he believed was a foreign agent. In reality, he had been feeding details to an undercover New Zealand police officer.
A spy plot that never was
The soldier’s attempted handover in 2019 included military maps, base telephone directories, security assessments, his own ID card and even login details for a military computer network. Court documents said his actions were “likely to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand.”
But the entire operation was a sting. Instead of dealing with a hostile foreign power, the soldier was corresponding with law enforcement who had been monitoring extremist groups in the wake of the Christchurch mosque terror attack that killed 51 people.
Judge Kevin Riordan, who oversaw the case alongside a panel of senior military officers, described the soldier’s actions as unsophisticated but far from harmless.
“There is no such thing as a non-serious act of espionage,” he said. “There is no trivial act of espionage.”
Extremist material uncovered
When investigators searched the soldier’s hard drive, they discovered a copy of the Christchurch gunman Brenton Tarrant’s livestreamed massacre and his extremist manifesto, both banned under New Zealand law. The soldier pleaded guilty to possession of the material, joining several others already convicted of holding or sharing the prohibited files.
Although he denied supporting Tarrant’s ideology, the soldier admitted being involved in nationalist groups, which he described as “no more than groups of friends with similar points of view.”
Army reacts with anger
The soldier had been based at Linton Military Camp near Palmerston North. Army Chief Major General Rose King delivered a damning statement after sentencing:
“The actions of this individual were deplorable. They were incredibly poorly judged and brought risk to all of those he served alongside, as well as the wider New Zealand public.”
A rare case in New Zealand’s history
The conviction marks the first time a New Zealand military court has sentenced someone for espionage or attempted spying. The last comparable case dates back to 1975, when a public servant faced charges of passing secrets to Russian agents but was ultimately acquitted.
The charges against the soldier originally carried maximum prison terms of up to 10 years. He avoided a full trial by pleading guilty to a reduced suite of three offences, down from the 17 he originally faced.
