Rebuffed by the International Court of Justice ... Attorney General George Brandis authorised the raid on East Timor’s Australia lawyer Bernard Collaery.
Rebuffed by the International Court of Justice ...
Attorney General George Brandis authorised the raid on East Timor’s
Australia lawyer Bernard Collaery. Photo: Michelle Smith
Australia has been ordered to cease spying on East Timor and
its legal advisers, in a landmark decision by the International Court of
Justice relating to a bitter dispute between the two countries over $40
billion of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
The court also ruled that the Australian government must seal documents and data seized in an ASIO raid in December.


Australia shall not interfere in any way in communications between Timor Leste and its legal advisers 

he decision, is a major setback for Attorney General George
Brandis who authorised the raid on East Timor’s Australia lawyer Bernard
Collaery, where about a dozen agents swooped on his office and took
reams of material, including legal documents, electronic files and a
statement by a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service agent
alleging an eavesdropping operation on the tiny half island nation by
Australia.
East Timor suspects the ASIO raid last year was only part of a
massive espionage campaign against it by Australia as the impoverished
nation seeks to have the treaty between the two countries over the Timor
Sea reserves declared invalid by an international arbitration tribunal
in the Hague because it was not negotiated in good faith.