Chinese embassy officials observe Canberra spy case in court
The woman has pleaded not guilty, invoking Bruce Lehrmann’s aborted criminal trial to keep her identity a secret as embassy officials attend her court hearing.
A woman accused of spying on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party in the heart of Canberra has invoked Bruce Lehrmann’s aborted criminal trial to keep her identity a secret, as members of the Chinese embassy quietly attended a hearing to watch her in court.
The woman, who cannot be named because of a suppression order, on Monday indicated she would plead not guilty to working as a “proxy” to covertly gather information for an official working for China’s security bureau about Canberra’s Guan Yin Citta Buddhist Association.
The ACT Magistrates Court heard prosecutors had seized nine devices – amassing a total of 2.5tb of data – which has to be analysed and translated.
An application to extend the suppression order in place since not long after her arrest in August was granted by ACT Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker on the grounds that a juror could conduct research about the accused.
The woman has been charged with one count of reckless foreign interference after allegedly feeding information to China’s Public Security Bureau about the Canberra Guan Yin Citta Buddhist Association, a group banned in China.
If found guilty, she faces a maximum 15 years’ jail. She appeared emotionless on Monday after being quietly led into the courtroom.
The permanent Australian resident is accused of receiving more than $230,000 while taking instructions from a mysterious security official over encrypted messaging platform WeChat.
Her barrister, Anthony Williamson, said she would be pleading not guilty. In applying for the suppression to be continued, he referred to the 2022 criminal rape trial of Mr Lehrmann, which was aborted from juror misconduct and saw his charges dropped.
The application for the extension of the suppression order was heard in a secret room listed under a pseudonym in court, attended only by legal representatives from the AFP, Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions, Nationwide News (publisher of this masthead), her own legal representatives and supporters as well as members of the media.
Sitting inconspicuously in the courtroom, however, were two mysterious individuals, who refused to answer questions upon leaving and drove away in a Diplomatic Corps-plated vehicle, with a number-plate prefix corresponding to the Chinese embassy.
The court was closed for some 15 minutes for her defence to put part of the application for continued suppression order to the magistrate. In continuing the suppression order, Chief Magistrate Walker noted the “high profile” nature of the matter and that there was “highly prejudicial” information in the public domain about the defendant.
“It is a matter which by its very nature is likely to pique a certain curiosity in the level of apprehension in relation to anyone who may be a juror in these proceedings, which ultimately must be heard in the Supreme Court before a jury,” she said.
“I perceive a very real likelihood of prejudice to this defendant at this point in time, if her name is made public, and jurors are potentially influenced.”
Chief Magistrate Walker also noted it was only the third time an individual had been charged under the legislation and the first time in the jurisdiction.
Officers executing a search warrant on the woman’s home at the end of June located hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of luxury goods, including a Rolex watch receipt, large boxes of high-end handbags “that were too numerous to practicably count” and a receipt for a mystery item costing $400,000.
Court documents show the woman travelled to China on “several occasions in the past several years” including to the region where her alleged security handler was employed.
She is alleged to have received “taskings” from the handler attached to the Jindong Branch – 650km east of Wuhan – from June 2, 2022, to covertly collect information and infiltrate the association.
Police believe the woman, who first entered Australia on a higher education visa, secretly collected information about the Guan Yin Citta organisation, including details regarding the residential addresses of former leaders of the group and their national office locations.
She allegedly provided photos of the front doors of businesses, internal map data of locations and financial information about organisations and businesses, as well as gathering information about a radio station and its affiliations with the Buddhist group.
The matter will return to court on November 10.
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