More on the man Labour gifted residency to

The Herald reports:

An entire family was forced into witness protection as a result of criminal behaviour by Czech man Karel Sroubek, National Leader Simon Bridges has said in Parliament.

Bridges today asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern whether she was aware of the case of the family, which he said in Parliament was forced into New Zealand’s witness protection programme as a result of the actions of Sroubek, for which he faced criminal charges.

Court documents provided to the Herald showed that an associate of Sroubek sought to give evidence against him in an upcoming trial by video link because of fears for his safety. The application was denied but the High Court at Auckland was told in July 2010 that the associate was allegedly threatened by Sroubek and two other men with connections to the Hells Angels over a deal gone bad.

The court was told Sroubek, or Jan Antolik as he was known then, went to his associate’s home with the two other men and assaulted him and threatened him with a knife over a debt of $12,000.

They took his watch and his partner’s car but made it clear the money was still owed, the court documents alleged.

“After this incident, [name withheld] went to the police and he and his family were placed in the witness protection programme. Even so, [name withheld] says that two anonymous threats were made to his immediate family after he had made his complaint to police.”

The threats have to be real and significant for a family to go into witness protection. His behaviour is not surprising as he was a convicted criminal and gang associate. The Minister knew he was a convicted criminal and gang associate yet still gave him residency.

Bridges questioned whether Sroubek was the kind of person Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway should give residency to.

“Residency already existed. The decision put before the Minister was around a deportation order. He made that decision based on information put in front of him,” Ardern said.

Residency did not already exist for Karel Sroubek, which is the man in question. Residency had been granted in the name of a Jan Antolik, but it had no validity as no legal person of that name exists.

The PM is trying to spin her away out of the fact her Minister did grant residency to Sroubek.

Ardern said she would not discuss specifics of the case but said there were well over 100 such cases National dealt with while in government.

Yes and none of them involved a drug dealing gang associate.