Is Australia the China it accuses of being Secretive?(ODT)

Witness J spent 15 months behind bars in Canberra’s Alexander Maconochie Centre, after being sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to two years and seven months in jail for serious national security offences.

After being released from jail in August 2019 under strict conditions, including six-monthly regular psychological testing and an overseas travel ban without prior permission, Witness J launched civil proceedings against the ACT Government.

Witness J has used the anonymity of social media to criticise his former employer and the secrecy shrouding his case.

Former independent national security legislation monitor and leading barrister Bret Walker was alarmed by the Witness J case.

“Permanently secret legal proceedings is not the kind of conduct we want an Australian justice system to include,” he told the ABC late last year.

“The public has an interest to know when information is being kept secret from them — it’s not good enough for the public to be told ‘it’s in your interests that you are not told’.”

via National security watchdog to probe case of Witness J, who was tried, sentenced and jailed in total secrecy – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)