Independent Member of Parliament Taito Phillip Field will go to trial in Auckland in April on 37 criminal charges.
The Mangere MP's 12-week trial on 12 bribery and corruption charges and 25 charges of attempting to obstruct or pervert the course of justice will begin in the High Court in Auckland on April 20.
The trial date was confirmed at a callover hearing in the High Court in Auckland today.
Field was committed for trial in May after a four week depositions hearing in Manukau District Court before Judge Charles Blackie.
During the depositions hearing, 51 witnesses were called and the same number was expected to be called during the High Court trial. Interpreters were also expected to be used for many of the prosecution witnesses.
The charges were laid after Field allegedly accepted work on seven of his properties by Thai nationals in return for immigration assistance between November 2002 and October 2005.
The charges of perverting or obstructing the course of justice were laid after he was alleged to have made false statements, encouraged others to make false statements and created false documents during subsequent inquiries into the corruption allegations by Noel Ingram, QC, and by police.
The charges went ahead after Justice Tony Randerson granted police the right last year to lay them after a hearing in the High Court at Auckland in August.
The leave of the High Court was required before the charges could be laid against a sitting MP.
