{"id":2695,"date":"2025-09-05T01:42:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/2695\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T01:42:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:42:06","slug":"nzdf-appeals-soldiers-inadequate-attempted-espionage-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/2695\/","title":{"rendered":"NZDF appeals soldier&#8217;s &#8216;inadequate&#8217; attempted espionage sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">The New Zealand Defence Force has filed a notice of appeal against the sentence handed down in a landmark Court Martial held at Linton Military Camp last month, where a soldier was convicted of attempted espionage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The Director of Military Prosecutions was appealing the sentence to the Court Martial Appeal Court, arguing it was &#8220;manifestly inadequate&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The soldier, whose name remains suppressed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2025\/08\/20\/new-zealand-soldier-sentenced-dismissed-for-attempted-espionage\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was sentenced to two years\u2019 detention<\/a> at Burnham Military Camp and dismissed from the NZDF after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2025\/08\/18\/soldier-admits-handing-info-to-person-he-thought-was-foreign-agent\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pleading guilty<\/a> to three charges: attempted espionage, accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose, and possession of objectionable material.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Justice Kevin Riordan, who presided over the Court Martial, said the soldier\u2019s actions were naive but serious, noting that &#8220;there is no such thing as a non-serious act of espionage&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The court acknowledged the soldier\u2019s links to far-right groups and his expressed desire to defect in 2019, which led to a sting operation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The soldier handed over sensitive information to a person who he thought was a foreign agent but was really part of the undercover sting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">Judge Kevin Riordan said the outcome of the court martial aimed to deter others from acting in a similar way. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Chief of Army Major General Rose King described the offending as &#8220;deplorable&#8221; and said it struck at the core of the NZDF\u2019s oath of allegiance. She praised the efforts of New Zealand\u2019s security agencies for preventing the material from reaching a foreign power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">As the appeal was now before the courts, the NZDF declined to comment further.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The morning&#8217;s headlines in 90 seconds, including winter weather sticking around, new research finds a link between rugby and dementia, and fashion titan Giorgio Armani dies.  (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Zealand Defence Force has filed a notice of appeal against the sentence handed down in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,1403,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-2695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-crime-and-justice","9":"tag-defence","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}