AAPP MEDIA RELEASE DATE:13 April 2022, Updated 7.26pm
High Court decision on Collaery case adjourned due to ‘security concerns’.
“The High Court decision today on the Collaery case is another example of the intransigence of the Government in their persecution of Bernard Collaery,” said Kathryn Kelly, Co-convenor of the Alliance Against Political Prosecutions (AAPP) “The appeal should never have been brought. The decision to reserve their judgement until Justice Mossop decides on another related matter, is disappointing. The supposedly critical issues of ‘national security’ in this case are not credible, particularly when it appears that the High Court judges have not even been privy to those ‘concerns’. Trust in our justice system is being lost because of these machinations”.
The ongoing persecution of Collaery by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) resulted from the public exposure of an Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) operation in Timor Leste during 2004. Listening devices were planted by ASIS to eavesdrop on Timorese government negotiations while Timor-Leste were negotiating a new maritime boundary with Australia. This boundary held major implications for oil and gas exploration and shared revenues.
“What is clear is that there is an urgent need for an Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate the ASIS bugging operation and how it was approved, and to investigate the processes which guided the decision to prosecute Collaery. The government had promised a commission against corruption and stronger protections for journalists, but neither has been delivered to date,” said Ms Kelly.
“These are urgent tasks for the next government, “she concluded.
CONTACT: Sister Susan Connelly 0498 473 341 or Kathryn Kelly 0417 269 984,
Co-convenors of AAPP