Drop the Charges Against Bernard Collaery and Witness K

Drop the Charges Against Bernard Collaery and Witness K

Started
21 July 2019
Petition to
Christian Porter (Former politician) and 2 others
Petition Closed
This petition had 4,220 supporters

Why this petition matters

Started by Gareth Smith

In 1999 I volunteered to go to East Timor as a District Electoral Officer because the Timorese were being given the chance of voting for or against independence.  The Timorese had suffered  400 years of brutal Portuguese occupation followed by the Japanese in WW II who killed thousands. The Timorese helped Australian commandos in WW II (Sparrow Force) and were rewarded with an Australian "thank you" stone outside Dili, which says Australia will never forget you.  Despite this, Australia did the dirty on them in 1975 by siding with the Indonesian invaders who were responsible for 300,000 deaths, about one third of the population.

The Australian government continues to slug the Timorese by bugging the cabinet room of the East Timor parliament so that it could gain an advantage in negotiations over the sharing of oil and gas deposits in the Timor Sea.  The ASIS spy who did the bugging had a crisis of conscience over Australia's theft from the one of the poorest nations and disclosed what he had done.  He and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery now face 6 years jail.  Ex President Xanana Gusmao has appealed to the Australian government that the charges against these two men be dropped.  If anyone should be in the dock it is Australia for trying to swindle the Timorese out of their legitimate rights.

“Australians reading about secret trials in foreign countries tend to content themselves in the belief that in Australia we have an open court system and an independent judiciary. After all, freedom of speech, the rule of law and an open and independent court system are basic bulwarks of our democracy…….(however, in the matter of Witness K and Bernard Collaery) public confidence in our judicial system is at stake.”  Ernst Willheim, (https://johnmenadue.com/ernst-willheim-secret-trials-the-extraordinary-prosecution-of-bernard-collaery-and-witness-k/

More information at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-28/witness-k-and-bernard-collaery-charged-intelligence-act-breach/9919268

Petition Closed

This petition had 4,220 supporters

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Decision makers

  • Christian PorterFormer politician
  • Christian PorterAttorney general
  • Scott MorrisonPrime Minister