Australia accused of ‘excessive and unnecessary’ secrecy

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia’s repression of information believed to be critical to free and open media is at the center of allegations that the country has become one of the most mysterious democracies in the world.

Last week, a former Australian spy was convicted of his unconfirmed role as a whistleblower who exposed a spy operation against the East Timor government.

It is the latest high profile case in a national system where secrecy laws, some of which date back to the colonial era, are routinely used to suppress information. Police have also threatened to indict journalists who uncovered allegations of war crimes against Australian special forces in Afghanistan or bureaucrats’ plan to allow an intelligence agency to spy on Australian citizens.

Australians don’t even know the name of the former spy convicted on Friday. The Canberra law firm listed him as “Witness K”. His lawyer referred to him more respectfully as “Mr. K “in court.

K spent the two-day hearing in a box made up of black screens to hide his identity. The public and media were sent out of the courtroom when secret evidence was discussed, which was roughly half the time.

The only sign that someone was actually in the box was when a voice said “guilty” after K was asked how he pleaded.

The Australian government has refused to comment on allegations that during negotiations on the sharing of oil and gas revenues from the seabed that separates the two countries, K was leading an operation by Australian intelligence that established government offices in East Timorese in 2004 Capital bugged.

The government struck K’s passport before testifying before the Hague Permanent Arbitration Court in 2014 in support of the East Timorese who argued that the treaty was invalid because Australia failed to negotiate in good faith through espionage.

There was no evidence in court of a wiretapping that media reported was carried out under the guise of a foreign aid program.

K was sentenced to a three-month suspended sentence. If he did go to jail, court orders were issued to mask his previous espionage career by limiting what he could say to friends and colleagues to explain his predicament.

He could face up to two years in prison. Since its offense, Australia has tightened secrecy controls and increased the maximum sentence to 10 years.

As lacking in transparency as K law enforcement was, it was a huge improvement over Australia’s treatment of another renegade intelligence officer named Witness J.

J has been described by the media as possibly the only person in Australian history to be secretly tried, convicted and imprisoned. But nobody seems to know for sure.

As with K, it is illegal to reveal J’s identity.

J pleaded guilty in a closed courtroom in the same court complex in Canberra in 2018 on charges of mishandling of classified information and possible identity disclosure of Australian agents. He spent 15 months in prison.

The secret trial and detention did not become public until late 2019 after J initiated legal proceedings against the Australian capital city government claiming his human rights had been violated by police ransacking his prison cell in search of his memoirs.

Outraged lawyers then called for the country’s first comprehensive review of secrecy laws since 2010. Whistleblowers and journalists are currently threatened by more than 70 anti-terror and security laws that Parliament has passed since the September 11 attacks in the United States

Andrew Wilkie, a former whistleblower for government intelligence now a federal independent legislature, is a vocal critic of national security, which is used as an excuse to flatter paranoia and protect embarrassment.

Wilkie resisted prosecution for K and his former attorney, Bernard Collaery. Collaery is fighting an indictment he conspired with K to reveal East Timor secrets and wants his trial to open.

“I’m sure one of the reasons the K and Collaery matter was kept secret is the enormous political embarrassment that we were spying on one of the poorest countries in the world to get the upper hand in business negotiations,” Wilkie said.

Wilkie quit his intelligence job in the Office of National Assessments days before Australian forces joined the US and British forces in the 2003 Iraq invasion. He publicly argued that Iraq was not a threat sufficient to warrant an invasion and that there was no evidence that the Iraqi government was associated with al-Qaeda.

“I basically accused the government of lying,” said Wilkie.

Although the government tried to discredit him, Wilkie said he never faced prosecution for divulging classified information.