By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Attorney-General and Isaacs MP Mark Dreyfus has dropped the controversial prosecution of lawyer Bernard Collaery on national security charges.
Mr Dreyfus said he discharged Mr Collaery after “careful regard to our national security, our national interest and the proper administration of justice”.
He also considered Australia’s “relations with our neighbours” in what he said was an “exceptional case”.
“Governments must protect secrets, and this government remains steadfast in our commitment to keep Australians safe by keeping secrets out of the wrong hands.”
Mr Collaery, who was lawyer for an ex-spy ‘Witness K’, had been fighting Commonwealth charges of unlawfully disclosing information about an Australian intelligence mission to bug Timor-Leste government offices in 2004.
At the time, the two governments negotiated over oil reserves in Timor Sea in 2004.
Witness K was sentenced to a three-month suspended jail term after pleading guilty to breaching national secrecy laws.
Mr Collaery was accused of helping Witness K reveal the spying.
Mr Dreyfus said he notified the ACT Supreme Court, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and Mr Collaery’s legal representatives of his decision.
“It is my view that the prosecution of Mr Collaery should end,” Mr Dreyfus said today.
“I have therefore decided to exercise my power under section 71 of the Judiciary Act not to proceed with the prosecution of Mr Collaery.”
When asked if there would be compensation, Mr Dreyfus said there were “no agreements and no undertakings”.
