Nothing is usual about the ongoing criminal prosecutions of lawyer Bernard Collaery and former senior intelligence officer "Witness K" in the ACT.

After nine months of hearings and seven judgments, we recently learned for the first time that four of the five charges against Collaery are that he communicated to ABC journalists that the Australian Secret Intelligence Service had bugged Timor-Leste’s cabinet room during the negotiations with Australia over resources in the Timor sea – that revelation was broadcast on 4 Corners, 7.30 Report, Lateline, and on ABC Radio – and that the information in question “was prepared by or on behalf of ASIS in connection with its functions or related to the performance of its functions”. The fifth charge is that Collaery communicated such information to the government of Timor-Leste.