The single email at the heart of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' bungling of a Malaysian diplomat's immunity case has been revealed.
In a report released today, the email by a mid-ranking foreign affairs official was blamed for a crucial misunderstanding between New Zealand and Malaysian officials.
It gave the Malaysian High Commission the impression that defence attache Muhammad Rizalman bin Ismail, who had been charged with sexual offending, could return to Malaysia with diplomatic immunity.
An hour after Rizalman was charged by police with burglary and assault to commit rape on May 10, 2014, an official in MFAT's Protocol Division told Malaysian officials that he was due to appear in court on May 30.
The official's email said: "If he were to complete his posting prior to 30 May and return to Malaysia with his family, that would be the end of the matter".
Rizalman returned to Malaysia on May 22, against the wishes of the Government, police and his victim, Tania Billingsley, who has waived her right to remain anonymous.
Yesterday he was sentenced to nine months' home detention after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting Wellington woman Ms Billingley in her home in May 2014.
The report's author, John Whitehead, said he accepted the MFAT official's assurance that she was not intending to suggest that the New Zealand Government was seeking anything other than a waiver of immunity.
"However, on the basis of a straightforward reading, the email does not clearly explain that 'the matter' relates only to the court fixture and not the incident as a whole, as the protocol officer stated was her intention.
"I consider, therefore, that inadvertently the email provided scope for the Malaysian authorities to misunderstand the intent, as subsequently proved to be the case."
The issue was made worse by the fact that the email was not distributed to other ministry staff, and therefore they were unaware of the official's comments.
Attached to the official's email was a formal note, which included the ministry's official position that it wanted immunity to be waived.
The protocol officer who sent the email resigned from MFAT last year, but has picked up another government job.
In his report, Mr Whitehead said there was "definite evidence" that the protocol officer "clearly regarded the incident itself as a very serious matter".
He said the staff member had a history of "zero tolerance for even minor misdemeanours by foreign diplomats, let alone for crimes at the more serious end".
At the time of the incident, Prime Minister John Key criticised the MFAT official.
"If that person doesn't have clarity about that position then they need to think very strongly about whether they're in the right job," he said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says the findings of an investigation into the awarding of immunity to a Malaysian diplomat are "disappointing".
"As previously indicated the conclusions reached by Mr Whitehead's investigation are not unexpected but they are very disappointing. At the heart of the matter is a single email, along with procedural shortcomings, which gave Malaysian officials the impression it would be acceptable for Mr Rizalman to return to Malaysia."
Mr McCully said that while Rizalman had now been through the court system, this process should never have been in doubt.
"I would also like to reiterate my apology to the young woman who was so badly let down by the way this issue was handled."
MFAT chief executive Brook Barrington said all of the report's 21 recommendations were being implemented.
"We have apologised unreservedly to the Government, and to the victim," he said.
Mr Barrington said the report identified shortcomings in process and judgment, and in his view not enough attention was paid to the interests of Ms Billingsley. He added there was no evidence anyone in the ministry deliberately tried to mislead minister or circumvent process.
- By Isaac Davison of the New Zealand Herald
