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Crimes Act 1961

Parties to the commission of offences

69: Party to any other crime outside New Zealand

You could also call this:

"Helping someone commit a serious crime outside New Zealand is against the law"

Illustration for Crimes Act 1961

If you help someone commit a crime outside New Zealand, you can get in trouble. You can be jailed for up to 14 years if you aid, incite, counsel, or procure someone to commit treason, inciting to mutiny, or espionage outside New Zealand. This applies even if the person committing the crime does not owe allegiance to New Zealand. If you owe allegiance to New Zealand and you help someone commit one of these crimes outside New Zealand, you can also get in trouble. You can be jailed for up to 14 years for this offence. This is because you are helping someone commit a crime that would be serious if it happened in New Zealand. If you try to get someone to commit a crime outside New Zealand, but they do not actually do it, you can still get in trouble. You can be jailed for up to 10 years for this. This applies to crimes like treason, inciting to mutiny, or espionage. If you help someone commit a crime outside New Zealand that would be a crime in New Zealand, you can get in trouble. You can be jailed for up to 7 years or the same amount of time as the crime you helped with, whichever is less. But if the crime was not illegal where it happened, you might have a defence. Nothing in this law affects sections 9 to 11 of the International Crimes and International Criminal Court Act 2000. This means that those laws still apply and are not changed by this law. You should understand that this law is about committing crimes outside New Zealand.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM328511.

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Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
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69A: Party to certain acts or omissions in New Zealand, or

"Helping someone break the law in New Zealand can get you in trouble too"

Part 4Parties to the commission of offences

69Party to any other crime outside New Zealand

  1. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years who, in New Zealand, aids, incites, counsels, or procures the doing or omission outside New Zealand, by any person not owing allegiance to the Sovereign in right of New Zealand, of any act which, if done or omitted outside New Zealand by a person owing such allegiance, would be any of the crimes of treason, inciting to mutiny, or espionage, as specified in sections 73, 77, and 78.

  2. A person who owes allegiance to the Sovereign in right of New Zealand commits an offence if the person, outside New Zealand, aids, incites, counsels, or procures the doing or omission outside New Zealand, by any person not owing allegiance to the Sovereign in right of New Zealand, of any act which, if done or omitted outside New Zealand by a person owing such allegiance, would be any of the crimes mentioned in subsection (1).

  3. A person who commits an offence against subsection (1A) is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years.

  4. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who, in New Zealand, incites, counsels, or attempts to procure the doing or omission outside New Zealand of any act which, if done or omitted in New Zealand, would be any of the crimes mentioned in subsection (1), when that act is not in fact done or omitted.

  5. A person who owes allegiance to the Sovereign in right of New Zealand commits an offence if the person, outside New Zealand, incites, counsels, or attempts to procure the doing or omission outside New Zealand of any act which, if done or omitted in New Zealand, would be any of the crimes mentioned in subsection (1), when that act is not in fact done or omitted.

  6. A person who commits an offence against subsection (2A) is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years.

  7. Every one who, in New Zealand, aids, incites, counsels, or procures the doing or omission outside New Zealand of any act (not being an act to which the foregoing provisions of this section apply) which, if done or omitted in New Zealand, would be an offence other than murder punishable by imprisonment for life or by 2 or more years' imprisonment, is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding that prescribed for the offence, or 7 years, whichever is the less:

    provided that it shall be a defence to a charge under this subsection to prove that the doing or omission of the act to which the charge relates was not an offence under the law of the place where it was, or was to be, done or omitted.

  8. Except as otherwise provided in this Act, no one shall be convicted of inciting, counselling, or attempting to procure in New Zealand the doing or omission of an act outside New Zealand when that act is not in fact done or omitted.

  9. Nothing in this section limits or affects sections 9 to 11 of the International Crimes and International Criminal Court Act 2000.

Notes
  • Section 69(1): amended, on , by section 2(2) of the Crimes Amendment Act (No 2) 1982 (1982 No 157).
  • Section 69(1A): inserted, on , by section 8(1) of the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 71).
  • Section 69(1B): inserted, on , by section 8(1) of the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 71).
  • Section 69(2): amended, on , by section 8(2) of the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 71).
  • Section 69(2A): inserted, on , by section 8(3) of the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 71).
  • Section 69(2B): inserted, on , by section 8(3) of the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 71).
  • Section 69(3): amended, on , by section 6 of the Crimes Amendment Act (No 4) 2011 (2011 No 85).
  • Section 69(5): inserted, on , by section 181(2) of the International Crimes and International Criminal Court Act 2000 (2000 No 26).