A FORMER AUSTRALIAN SPY, who prompted international outcry by revealing a controversial espionage operation by Canberra against the impoverished nation of East Timor, has been given a suspended prison sentence.
The case against the former spy, known only as “Witness K.”,
first emerged
in 2013. It is believed that Witness K. served as director of technical
operations in the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS),
Australia’s foreign-intelligence agency.
In 2013, Witness K. revealed an espionage
operation that targeted the impoverished Pacific island nation of
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor. He alleged that ASIS officers,
disguised as a renovation crew, bugged an East Timorese government
complex. The information gathered from the spy operation allegedly
allowed the Australian government to gain the upper hand in a series of
complex negotiations that led to the 2004 Certain Maritime Arrangements
in the Timor Sea (CMATS) treaty. The treaty awards Australia a share
from profits from oil exploration in the Greater Sunrise oil and gas
field, which is claimed by both Australia and East Timor.
In 2013, the East Timorese government
took Australia to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague,
claiming that the Australian government was in possession of
intelligence acquired through illegal bugging. The claim was supported
by Witness K., who argued that ASIS’ espionage operation was both
“immoral and wrong” because it was designed to benefit the interests of
large energy conglomerates and had nothing to do with Australian
national security. It is worth noting that Witness K. said he decided to
reveal the ASIS bugging operation after he learned that Australia’s
former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, had been hired as
an adviser to Woodside Petroleum, an energy company that was directly
benefiting from the CMATS treaty.
Meanwhile,
officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO),
the country’s domestic intelligence agency, raided the Canberra law
offices of Bernard Collaery, East Timor’s lawyer in the case, who is
also defending Witness K. in court. The raiders took away documents that
revealed the identity of Witness K., and then proceeded to detain him
for questioning. They also confiscated his passport, which prevented him
from traveling to the Netherlands to testify in the case. In the
following months, an embarrassed Australian government quietly conceded
to East Timor’s claims and agreed to renegotiate the CMATS treaty.
However, Witness K. and Mr. Collaery were
each charged with a single count of conspiring to share information
that is protected by Section 39 of Australia’s Intelligence Services
Act, which forbids the unauthorized release of classified information.
The case was heard last week at the Australian Capital Territory
Magistrates Court in Canberra, in circumstances that were described
by reporters as “extraordinary”. Members of the public and the news
media were barred from most of the proceedings in order to protect
classified information. Witness K was physically hidden behind a
makeshift black screen, which was designed to conceal his identity.
In the end, the Magistrate, Glenn Theakston, decided
that the former spy’s actions had been motivated “by a sense of
justice, rather than for personal gain”, and were “not intended to
compromise Australia’s national security interests”. In the
justification of his decision, Judge Theakston said he took into account
the former spy’s age —he is believed to be in his 70s. Additionally, he
accepted Witness K.’s legal team’s request that he should be offered
“judicial mercy” due to suffering from a series of health conditions,
including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Witness K.’s three-month suspended jail sentence does not expunge the
conviction from his record. Additionally, has is required to pay
AUS$1,000 (US$750) as security deposit for good behavior over the next
12 months. Witness K.’s attorney, Bernard Collaery, continues to face
charges of conspiring with his client to reveal the Australian spy
operation against East Timor. He has argued that his case should not be
tried behind closed doors.
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