ABC (by 1.50pm August 6, 2019) revised

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-06/witness-k-to-plead-guilty-lawyer-bernard-collaery-face-trial/11387046

making it much longer and more interesting.

More on Witness K, Collaery Cases

The Canberra Times, August 7, 2019 reports http://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6314356/witness-k-and-collaerys-influence-to-be-felt-in-timor-leste/?cs=14350

"Witness K and Collaery's influence to be felt in Timor Leste

When Witness K's case is next due in the ACT Magistrates Court on August 29, Scott Morrison will be on his way to mark 20 years since the referendum that secured Timor Leste's independence from Indonesia, and to ratify the maritime boundary treaty between the two nations.

While Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery wont be mentioned publicly by our representatives, their influence will be felt at the proceedings.

On Tuesday Witness K indicated he intended to plead guilty to breaching secrecy laws, an understandable position after years of legal wrangling.

The prosecution and defence lawyers are yet to agree to a statement of facts in the case, and what ends up in that statement could have implications for Witness K's former lawyer Mr Collaery, who will fight on in the Supreme Court.

Clinton Fernandes, professor in international and political studies at UNSW Canberra, said many in Timorese civil society will be aware of the significance of the two men in their country getting a better deal in the negotiations over valuable oil fields.

"It's very instructive that the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition are going to Timor Leste to celebrate a renewal of bilateral relations and the two people most responsible for the renegotiation of the treaty are in fact Witness K and Collaery, who are facing legal sanction," Professor Fernandes said.

...T-shirts in solidarity with the pair have also been seen in Timor Leste and could be appear again when Australian attention returns to the country. The group MKOTT, or Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea, has campaigned in support of the pair.

The men have been offered appreciation by Timor-Leste's president as well as former presidents Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta. Many in one of the world's poorest countries remember that it is because of the two men that an attempt by one of the world's richest countries to gain the negotiating upper hand was revealed...”

Respected US academic JOSEPH FITSANAKIS has written an article on the IntelNews website – see http://intelnews.org/2019/08/07/01-2603/ which is:

“Australian ex-intelligence officer pleads guilty to disclosing spy operation” of AUGUST 7, 2019

“An Australian former intelligence officer will plead guilty to revealing an Australian spy operation against the impoverished nation of East Timor, which prompted international outcry and damaged Canberra’s reputation. IntelNews has covered the case [at http://intelnews.org/2013/12/05/01-1382/ ] of the former intelligence officer, known only as “Witness K.”since 2013, when it was first revealed.

[Sentence deleted due to OLO's 350 word per comment limit]. In 2013, he publicly objected to an intelligence-collection operation that targeted the impoverished Pacific island nation of Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor.

According to Witness K., a group of ASIS officers disguised themselves as members of a renovation crew and planted several electronic surveillance devices in an East Timorese government complex. The inside information gathered from those devices 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.

But in 2013, the East Timorese government took Australia to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, claiming that the CMATS treaty should be scrapped. The East Timorese argued that during the sensitive negotiations that preceded the CMATS treaty, the Australian government was in possession of intelligence acquired through illegal bugging.

The claim of the East Timorese government 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 in 2012, after he learned that Australia’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, had been hired as an adviser to Woodside Petroleum, an energy

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company that was directly benefiting from the CMATS treaty.

However, as soon as the East Timorese told the Permanent Court of Arbitration that they would be questioning a witness from ASIS, 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.

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. A new treaty was officially ratified by the Australian government last week. In the meantime, however, the Australian government has refused to allow the whistleblower to leave the country and continues to describe him as a security threat.

Witness K. and Mr. Collaery have each been 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. [Witness K’s?] hearing was supposed to start this week behind closed doors, because it involves topics that relate to Australian national security.

On Tuesday morning, however, Mr. Collaery announced his client’s decision to plead guilty to the charges of revealing the spy operation against East Timor. [Collaery?] added, however, that [Collaery?] would continue to contest the charge leveled against [Collaery?]. The lawyer’s announcement was the first time that the case of the East Timor bugging and the detention of Witness K. have been officially connected in public.

Witness K’s lawyers said on Tuesday that they were still negotiating with the prosecution about the full ramifications of their client’s guilty plea. Witness K. and Mr Collaery are expected to return to court in late August. Meanwhile, the judge has accepted the prosecution’s argument that it is illegal to discuss in public any information relating to the East Timor bugging case, or reveal the identity of Witness K.”

More on ALREADY PUBLISHED IN AUSTRALIA records on the "Witness K" and Bernard Collaery Cases.

Australia's Government owned ABC TV Four Corners screened, on Monday August 26, 2019, an episode entitled "Secrets, Spies and Trials" republished by ABC at http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/secrets,-spies-and-trials/11451004 site.

The beginning of the ABC Intro-BLURB for "Secrets, Spies and Trials" at http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/secrets,-spies-and-trials/11451004 is:

"National security vs the public's right to know.

"I feel we're living in very dangerous times here in Australia...one day we'll wake up and wonder how on earth we got here." MP

In a Canberra court room one of the most controversial trials ever to be held in Australia will soon get under way. The case is highly sensitive, with key evidence central to the allegations unlikely to ever be heard by the public.

"This could be...one of the most secretive trials in Australian history." Former judge

A former spy and his lawyer have been charged with conspiring to reveal secret information relating to an Australian intelligence operation aimed at a friendly foreign government.

"There is a legitimate public interest in knowing what is being tried...That's difficult to do if a trial, at the pointy end, will be held secretly." Lawyer

The two men involved are a former intelligence operative known only as Witness K and his lawyer, the former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery.

"Traditionally, it's simply not in the public interest to prosecute this kind of thing." Lawyer

Witness K and Collaery are accused of disclosing an Australian bugging operation carried out in the government offices of Timor Leste in 2004. It was years after the revelations became public that they were charged.

"There is that I think overall perception that this sort of litigation is a payback, firstly. Secondly, that the secrecy provisions are perceived to be a coverup." Former judge

On Monday Four Corners investigates the extraordinary steps the Australian government has taken to prosecute these men and to keep them silent."