A lawyer is challenging the legality of the 10-year detention of a man following his arrest for minor offences.
The 32-year-old man is intellectually disabled and has name suppression.
Details of the original two charges have been suppressed by Justice Cull at the High Court in Wellington.
But it can be revealed they were punishable by a maximum penalty of three months' jail.
The man's lawyer, Tony Ellis, told the court today his client was never formally convicted of either charge.
The court also suppressed any details about the man's subsequent behaviour, the identity of the facility he was being kept in and its geographical location.
The single hearing involves four cases; a criminal appeal over the treatment of original offending and three civil cases, including a judicial review.
