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The lawyer’s prosecution for allegedly helping Witness K expose Australia’s bugging of East Timor’s cabinet has been a protracted, expensive affair.
This week it was revealed that the Morrison government’s pursuit of lawyer Bernard Collaery and his client, ex-intelligence officer Witness K, cost the Commonwealth $5,510,829. Collaery was tried over his alleged role in helping K expose Australia’s bugging of East Timor’s cabinet in 2004.
Let’s look at the timeline.
May-September 2018: It was in 2014 that then attorney-general George Brandis first demanded the prosecution of K and Collaery, but things really ramped up under his successor Christian Porter, in 2018. The prosecution was consistently delayed throughout the year, as the government attempted to have the case heard in camera (privately before a judge). This delayed the case for weeks as the parties negotiated, and even at this point, Collaery’s lawyers complained of “deliberately late” advice they were receiving from the Crown.
Read more about the prosecution of Bernard Collaery.
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