Former top Australian spy Roger Uren allowed to travel to China
A top former spy charged over the alleged discovery of stashes of secret documents at his Canberra home will be allowed to spend a month in China even though police fear he might not return.
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A top former spy charged over the discovery of stashes of secret documents during two raids on his Canberra home will be allowed to spend a month in China despite police fears he might not return.
Roger Uren, 72, appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday, after being charged in July with 29 breaches of the secrecy laws last month.
Uren has not entered a plea.
The charges stem from a two raids on Uren’s house, in 2015 and 2016, during which federal police say they found classified intelligence documents in filing cabinets, drawers and among paperwork.
The court on Thursday heard Uren told investigators in an interview he never meant to undermine national security, and that he took the documents home because he thought reading them might be interesting.
“It was just to read to … see whether my assessments were accurate or not,” he said.
He told police he never intended to show the documents to anyone and hadn’t looked at them since his career as a spook ended in 2001.
Police opposed Uren’s application to have his bail loosened to allow him to leave Australia.
AFP detective Leading Senior Constable Paul Gurn said he believed Uren might not return from China, which has no extradition treaty with Australia.
Uren plans to spend a month with his wife, Sheri Yan who has been in Beijing since 2015 caring for her elderly parents.
Ms Yan, 63, served jail time after pleading guilty to bribing former United Nations General Assembly president John Ashe.
Uren also plans to meet with his former bosses in Hong Kong, who sacked him when he was charged.
Acting Chief Magistrate Glenn Theakston said Uren had travelled overseas 39 times since being told he was under investigation, had returned to Australia each time, and that international travel was “almost unremarkable for him”.
Uren’s lawyers will return to court in December with documents signed by his wife, putting up their jointly-owned $2 million Canberra property as a bail surety.
Mr Theakston said the charges Uren was facing carried three-year maximum penalties, which was “at the lower of maximum penalties”.
Uren will also be required to report to the Australian embassy in Beijing and provide a detailed travel itinerary.