{"id":643437,"date":"2026-10-28T04:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/643437\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T04:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:16:09","slug":"southland-slink-skin-operator-eddie-zhi-denies-stalking-and-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/643437\/","title":{"rendered":"Southland slink skin operator Eddie Zhi denies stalking and harassment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">He also faces an allegation of causing serious emotional distress by posting a digital communication, described in court as a poster, on October 4.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">The stalking and harassment charge will proceed to a jury trial, while the remaining two charges will be heard by a judge alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Zhi is scheduled to return to court for a case review hearing on December 9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">His company, NZAgri Development, has been embroiled in a prolonged dispute with Environment Southland and Southland District Council over thousands of dead lamb and calf carcasses accumulated at its Tuturau property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Neighbouring residents have complained about offensive odours from the operation, prompting enforcement action and Environment Court proceedings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Zhi has also been trespassed from the offices of both Environment Southland and Southland District Council following protests over enforcement action against his business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">The stalking and harassment offence, introduced in May, carries a maximum penalty of five years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He also faces an allegation of causing serious emotional distress by posting a digital communication, described in court&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1117,95,315456,6255,1873,28428,84533,84246,3368,75013,130,6377,111,139,69,44355,3373,1245,315454,15488,213,93067,131,138922,102,315455],"class_list":["post-643437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-accused","tag-and","tag-bombarding","tag-businessman","tag-charges","tag-denies","tag-eddie","tag-emails","tag-guilty","tag-harassment","tag-more","tag-neighbour","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-operator","tag-pleaded","tag-skin","tag-slink","tag-southland","tag-sports","tag-stalking","tag-than","tag-unwanted","tag-with","tag-zhi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643437","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=643437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}