ASIO raids lawyer on eve of Hague spying case

ASIO raids lawyer on eve of Hague spying case

Tom Allard

National Affairs Editor

ASIO officers have allegedly detained a man and raided the office of a lawyer who claims that Australian spies bugged the cabinet room of East Timor's government during tense negotiations over rich Greater Sunrise oil and gas deposits.

The lawyer, Bernard Collaery, is representing the East Timorese government, which has declared the treaty governing Greater Sunrise invalid and is seeking arbitration in The Hague this week.

East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, will tender evidence of the eavesdropping as part of its case. Mr Collaery, who just arrived in The Hague, told Fairfax the raids were a ''disgrace''. ''How dare they?'' Mr Collaery said. ''These tactics are designed to intimidate the witness and others from coming forward. It's designed to cover up an illegal operation in 2004 by ASIS [the Australian Secret Intelligence Service].''

East Timor alleges former foreign minister Alexander Downer dispatched a team of ASIS officers to East Timor's capital Dili to bug the government's cabinet room and prime minister's office in 2004.

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The alleged incursion was a breach of international law and Timorese sovereignty, Mr Collaery said. It was not properly authorised and amounted to a criminal conspiracy, he said.

At the time of the alleged ASIS operation, the two countries were negotiating a treaty covering the Greater Sunrise oil and gas deposits, worth billions of dollars.

Mr Collaery told Fairfax the whistleblower was in charge of the operation for ASIS.

''We have irrefutable evidence from the person who was in charge of the operation,'' he said. ''This is not a maverick whistleblower like Edward Snowden.''

Mr Collaery said he had the evidence of eavesdropping with him in The Hague.

He said his office in Canberra was raided by two men who identified themselves as ASIO agents but refused to show their search warrant, citing national security.

The officers, he said, seized documents and electronic files.

Mr Collaery, a former ACT attorney general, said he had been unable to contact the whistleblower but believed he was still being detained at his house and questioned late Tuesday.

ASIO declined to comment and Attorney-General George Brandis was also silent on the alleged raids.

The negotiations over Greater Sunrise were tense, and resentment lingered in East Timor afterwards that it came off second best during negotiations.

As it sought to renegotiate the treaty, the East Timorese government informed then prime minister Julia Gillard of the alleged bugging by ASIS. ''We offered Gillard the opportunity to tear the treaty up and renegotiate it, but she refused,'' Mr Collaery said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/asio-raids-lawyer-on-eve-of-hague-spying-case-20131203-2you7.html#ixzz2mPRWpQYC