Convicted drug smuggler Karel Sroubek has spoken for the first time about the botched decision to grant him residency, and he's asked for "one more chance".
Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway pulled a U-turn on Wednesday, revoking the decision to grant Sroubek residency.
From prison, Sroubek told Newshub Nation on Thursday that the ordeal has put him in more danger than he ever was before.
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"All I want is to be given one more chance, to be given a chance to prove that I may not be the person that I have [been] portrayed [as] the last few weeks," he said.
"I am not a gangster, not a murderer or career criminal, I am not a person who threatened my wife. I just want to move on and be given a chance to start over again."
Sroubek is airing his case publically for the first time since the Immigration Minister decided he is liable for deportation.
"Before I got incarcerated, I was involved in community," he said. "I was doing good things."
However, Sroubek was charged with importing illegal drugs into the country.
"I was charged with crime and I am doing the time and the crime and I have lost so much."
He says if he goes back to the Czech Republic, it will be a death sentence.
"There is no safety for me in Europe. I can't travel under my name anywhere... I am way worse off than I was before."
Sroubek admitted he had travelled back twice to the Czech Republic, but it was under a false identity and he thought he was safe.
"I was staying there for [a] very short time, and I went home and it was the time I wanted to check on my parents to see if they are alright," he said.
The revelation he had been back twice and details of his convictions forced a U-turn from Mr Lees-Galloway. But Sroubek says all that information was in his file.
"In my view, there is no new evidence. In my view the evidence [the] Immigration Minister is relying on, they have been on the file the whole time."
Sroubek claims his ex-wife is behind a campaign of misinformation, and he denies claims he threatened her or burgled their home.
"Hundred percent that is a lie and I never threatened them, and there is more to the story. There is a divorce going on and it is quite ugly."
He also denies claims that a family was placed in witness protection in 2010 because he threatened them.
"That's a lie, there is no family put into witness protection because of me, that's [an] absolute lie."
But it's on record - a family was put into protection, so how can it be a lie?
"There is no way it was because of me," says Sroubek.
Surprisingly, he is not one of those calling for the Immigration Minister's head. Instead, Sroubek reckons Mr Lees-Galloway has bowed to public pressure.
"Because it became political and he was under pressure [Mr Lees-Galloway] basically started to look for things - he started to look for the way out. And that's not justice, that's politics."
Sroubek says he deserves to stay here.
"I just want to stay in New Zealand because it is the only place that I am safe at the moment."
Newshub.
