Former New Zealand lawmaker and justice spokesperson for the centre-left Green Party Golriz Ghahraman was charged with shoplifting Wednesday, a day after she resigned from the legislature.
Ghahraman, the first refugee to have been elected to New Zealand’s parliament, stepped down citing the need to address her mental health following news reports linking her to allegations of shoplifting from boutique clothing stores.
Police interviewed Ghahraman at her home early Wednesday and later issued a statement saying charges had been laid “as part of an investigation into shoplifting reports that are subject to ongoing public interest”.
Police did not name Ghahraman as the woman charged, but she was widely identified as such in New Zealand media.
“A 43-year-old woman has been summonsed to appear in the Auckland District Court on two charges of shoplifting,” the police statement said.
She is expected to appear in court on February 1.
A former human rights lawyer who served as an MP for six years, Ghahraman announced her resignation on Tuesday.
In a statement, she said work-related stress had led her to “act in ways that are completely out of character. I am not trying to excuse my actions, but I do want to explain them”.
She conceded she had fallen short of the standards expected of politicians and needed time to address her mental health.
Iran-born Ghahraman moved to New Zealand as a child with her family when they were granted political asylum.
After studying law, she became a United Nations human rights lawyer working on international criminal tribunals before entering parliament in 2017.
Prior to the allegations becoming public, Ghahraman had been criticised for her prominent involvement in a string of pro-Palestine protests.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the pressure on his MP had mounted during that period and he believed it intensified the stress that accompanied her through her six years in parliament.
“Golriz herself has been subject to pretty much continuous threats of sexual violence, physical violence, death threats, since the day she was elected,” Shaw told journalists on Tuesday.
