Former ACT MP John Banks feels vindicated by a Court of Appeal decision to overturn his conviction for making a false electoral donation and order a new trial, he says.
Banks was convicted in August of failing to declare two donations of $25,000 from the internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom toward his failed bid for the Auckland mayoralty.
Today that conviction was overturned and a retrial ordered - a move Mr Banks said vindicated him.
The determination of his wife, Amanda, was a key to the decision and Mr Banks said she had felt humiliated while giving evidence at the trial, Radio New Zealand reported.
Mr Banks appealed after obtaining affidavit evidence from two American businessmen, David Schaeffer and Jeffery Karnes, claiming there was no discussion of political donations at a lunch with Dotcom, his wife, Mona, Mr Banks and his wife.
The three Court of Appeal judges have concluded that if the evidence had been before Justice Wylie in the High Court the outcome may have been different. It was in the interests of justice to admit the evidence, they said.