Well-known Auckland-based Samoan lawyer Olinda Woodroffe says she was "traumatised" when she had to seek refuge at the New Zealand High Commission office in Apia last week after being threatened with arrest.
Mrs Woodroffe and her daughter, Annette Woodroffe, a lawyer too, arrived back in Auckland yesterday, following an attempt by Samoan police to take her into custody last Friday.
"I am pleased I am out of the country, with my daughter," she told NZPA today. "We arrived very distressed".
She said that alleged intimidation by police of her and another New Zealand-based woman lawyer, Iuni Sapolu, was affecting their right to practise law in Samoa, where there had been moves to require lawyers appearing in court to be resident in that country.
"I wonder if this has to do with us coming from New Zealand with well-prepared, well-researched cases," she said.
Today Mrs Woodroffe was writing to Prime Minister Helen Clark and Deputy Samoan Prime Minister Misa Telefoni to complain about being bailed up at her Samoan house at Vailima.
Mrs Woodroffe said five burly men, who were in plain clothes and did not produce police identification, tried to get her to leave her house with them. She told them she would meet them at Apia's courts building, and when they did not arrive, she took refuge at the adjacent NZ High Commission.
"We got all the help that we could possibly expect from the High Commissioner's office," Mrs Woodroffe said.
A diplomat had let them stay in a room at the commission while he sought information from police, but when that could not be done quickly, the commission suggested the pair not go back to their house.
"We hid in a low-profile hotel until we were able to leave," Mrs Woodroffe said. The women were escorted to the airport by a highly-placed local lawyer.
Samoan police commissioner, Papalii Li'o, said Mrs Woodroffe was wanted as part of investigations into a complaint filed by the Ministry of Justice in Apia over allegations that insults were levelled at several justice office staff, Radio New Zealand International (RNZI) reported.
Mrs Woodroffe and her daughter were representing overseas clients at a court hearing, but the proceedings were adjourned by chief justice Patu Tiava'asu'e Falefatu Sapolu after her encounter with the police.
Police said charges against the lawyer are yet to be filed because investigations were still being carried out, RNZI reported.
But Mrs Woodroffe said a clerical staff member at Apia's Supreme Court had continually declined to file papers from her office and was "rude" to her secretary and her daughter.
"She aggravated me ... I did raise my voice," said Mrs Woodroffe, who rejected any suggestion she had used insulting language.
She believed the arrival of police at her home may have been linked to that dispute, and was concerned efforts by three burly men to get her to leave her home, while two more waited in a vehicle, could have been part of an effort to set her up for drugs to be planted on the premises.
Mrs Woodroffe is the second overseas-based Samoan lawyer to be accused of using insulting words after the arrest of Ms Sapolu last week.
Ms Sapolu entered not guilty pleas to five charges resulting from a police raid on her family's property in Samoa last week.
She appeared in Samoa District Court on two charges of obstruction and three of using insulting language. Three other similar charges were dropped.
All the alleged offences relate to a police raid on the lawyer's family property and business last week
The court granted leave for Ms Sapolu to return to New Zealand, and her case is to be heard in January.
The lawyer has claimed the raid was instigated by the mayor of a nearby village, and Mrs Woodroffe said she was concerned that Ms Sapolu was forced to strip in front of male police.
Mrs Woodroffe said she had also asked Miss Clark to seek information about a New Zealand man who was allegedly beaten by police three weeks ago.
