Mike Tyson forbidden to enter New Zealand due to rape conviction

The boxer was previously granted visa but was revoked after women’s anti-violence groups protest...

13:18 07 October 2012

Mike Tyson was scheduled in New Zealand for his one-man show “Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth.”

 

Although he was previously given an entry visa, this was revoked after women’s anti-violence groups protested against it.

 

Under New Zealand laws, a person who was convicted of certain crimes and have served five or more years in prison, cannot enter the country unless a special waiver is granted.

 

Tyson was convicted of raping 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant and was sentenced to six years in jail in 1992. 

 

Moved by the outrage of women’s anti-violence groups and days after Prime Minister John Key said he didn’t want Tyson to enter the country, Kate Wilkinson, the Associate Immigration Minister, announced that she revoked Tyson’s Visa on Wednesday.

 

She said: "Yesterday evening the Life Education Trust contacted my office and asked for that letter to be withdrawn, making it clear that the trust no longer wants to have any involvement with Mr Tyson's visit."

 

Tyson, have always maintained his innocence. During a live broadcast of Television New Zealand, the boxer said: "I didn't do the crime, I was set up, I don't care what people say.

 

"I didn't do that ----ing crime," he said.