Goliz Garaman (43), New Zealand’s first refugee member of parliament. /AP Yonhap News
Goliz Garaman (43), New Zealand’s first refugee-turned member of parliament, admitted to all charges of luxury goods theft in court.
According to foreign media such as AFP on the 14th (local time), former lawmaker Garaman officially admitted his guilt at the Auckland District Court the day before. He is accused of stealing about 9,000 New Zealand dollars (about 7.3 million won) worth of designer clothes from two high-end clothing stores in Auckland and Wellington late last year.
After finishing the trial, former lawmaker Garaman quietly left through the back door of the court. The court is scheduled to sentence in June, and if former lawmaker Garaman is found guilty, he could face up to seven years in prison.
Former lawmaker Garaman’s crime was first made known through local media reports on the 1st. CCTV footage from the damaged store was also released, showing former lawmaker Garaman lingering in front of the store, looking around, picking up his clothes and secretly putting them in a bag. Afterwards, he resigned from his position as a member of the National Assembly following a police investigation.
Former lawmaker Garaman is seen stealing items from a clothing store in Wellington, New Zealand. /New Zealand Herald YouTube
At the time, former lawmaker Garaman issued a statement and apologized, saying, “I take full responsibility for my own actions,” and “People expect the highest level of behavior from their elected representatives, but I fell short of that.” “Through a medical examination, I found out that my mental health was not good,” he said. “The expert explained that my behavior was due to extreme stress and was related to unrecognized trauma.”
Former lawmaker Garaman, born in Iran in 1981, fled to New Zealand with his parents to escape the Iran-Iraq War in 1990. He studied law and history in Auckland and received a master’s degree in international human rights law from the University of Oxford, England. He worked as a human rights lawyer at the International Criminal Court for 12 years before entering the New Zealand Parliament as a proportional representative in 2017.
He was elected as a member of the National Assembly in the 2020 and last year’s general elections and also served as a spokesperson for the Green Party. However, it is known that since his entry into the National Assembly, he has complained of mental suffering, including receiving several death threats. He was recently criticized for actively participating in protests supporting Palestine.
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2024-03-14 02:04:14
