Conspiracy theorist Billy Te Kahika Jr says his court case over a Covid lockdown protest he organised has cost him more than $10,000.
The saga has been a “nightmare” and “disgusting”, he says.
Te Kahika and Vincent (Vinny) Eastwood were both jailed in Marchfor breaching Covid-19 legislation by organising and attending a protest in 2021.
However, their lawyers immediately asked for the men to be granted bail, pending an appeal against their sentences being heard in the High Court.
Bail conditions were set by Judge Peter Winter, preventing the defendants from publicising the reasons they think their appeal may succeed on any social media platform.
The pair appeared in front of Justice Timothy Brewer at the High Court at Auckland on Tuesday morning appealing that bail condition.
The hearing lasted no longer than 10 minutes.
Justice Brewer quashed the bail restriction, saying being unable to talk about their case on social media was contrary to their rights of freedom of expression.
“I accept [the conditions] are non-compliant with section 14 of the Bill of Rights Act,” he said.
Justice Brewer also said he saw no link between Section 8 of the Bail Act relating to continued detention and the restrictions on access to the Internet.
Belle Archibald, the Crown prosecutor, also accepted there was no basis for the condition.
The pair’s appeals against their sentences are set to be heard later in April.
In a Telegram livestream to 50 people on Tuesday afternoon, Te Kahika said he didn’t want to go into details about the legal case, but said “it should succeed”.
Read More: Billy TK Jr says court case over lockdown protest has cost him over $10k
