“They were doing a drug search, they have a dog. They have said it’s APEC-related,” Mr [Stephen Jolly] said. “They wanted to know where we are staying in Sydney, they wanted to know what we are going to be doing by way of APEC activities. It’s unexpected, but I guess you have to expect the unexpected these days.”

The NSW Supreme Court yesterday referred a legal challenge to the police’s decision to draw up a “black list” of people who can be arrested if they enter the summit’s “declared zone” in central Sydney during APEC to a special sitting of the Court of Appeal.

“No one should think this is a trivial case,” Justice [Michael Adams] said. “I am satisfied there are special circumstances justifying thereferral to the Court of Appeal … the sooner this question is determined by the courts of this state … the better.”

A CONVOY of people travelling to Sydney for this weekend’s APEC protests was pulled over by police and the vehicles searched for drugs soon after they crossed the NSW border.

The convoy of two cars and a minibus, bringing about 20 members of the Socialist Party from Melbourne, was stopped at the town of Tarcutta, near Wagga Wagga, with police saying the delay was “APEC- related”.

Earlier this week, the party was named in the NSW Supreme Court as one of the groups intending to take part in Saturday’s protest, where, the court was told, NSW police expect “a full-scale riot is probable”.

Stephen Jolly, a socialist councillor for the city of Yarra in central Melbourne, said about 10 police cars and 30 police officers had forced the vehicles to pull over. The occupants were asked to leave their cars and stand beside the road for several hours.

“They were doing a drug search, they have a dog. They have said it’s APEC-related,” Mr Jolly said. “They wanted to know where we are staying in Sydney, they wanted to know what we are going to be doing by way of APEC activities. It’s unexpected, but I guess you have to expect the unexpected these days.”

Socialist Party national organiser Anthony Main said police had identified themselves as “APEC investigators” but were not acting under the special powers granted by the NSW Government for the duration of the APEC summit, which allow police to detain suspects with no guarantee of bail.

“This is nothing more than unfounded scaremongering, designed to intimidate and delay us and an attempt to undermine civil rights,” Mr Main said.

NSW police were unable to comment about the incident last night.

The NSW Supreme Court yesterday referred a legal challenge to the police’s decision to draw up a “black list” of people who can be arrested if they enter the summit’s “declared zone” in central Sydney during APEC to a special sitting of the Court of Appeal.

Lawyers for the four men included on the list argued that the state Government had acted unconstitutionally in passing legislation under which the list was created.

After several hours of legal argument, judge Michael Adams said the case was of such legal and political significance that it was in the public interest that he refer the matter to a special, late- night, sitting of the Court of Appeal.

“No one should think this is a trivial case,” Justice Adams said. “I am satisfied there are special circumstances justifying the referral to the Court of Appeal … the sooner this question is determined by the courts of this state … the better.”

Dan Jones, one of the four men named on the police list, said their inclusion on the list was motivated by politics, not public safety.

“We don’t hide the fact that we are planning a demonstration against this Government’s policies; we are defending the right of every citizen to express a political opinion,” Mr Jones, 20, said.

An earlier decision yesterday by NSW police to take the four men involved off the black list, giving them opportunity to demonstrate why they should not be included, was reversed when the deadline to do this passed without response from the men.

A decision on the case was expected late last night.