Wikileaks releases copy of suppression order on publication of international corruption case

[Magda Hassan]

Australia bans reporting of multi-nation corruption case involving Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam


Today, 29 July 2014, WikiLeaks releases an unprecedented Australian censorship order concerning a multi-million dollar corruption case explicitly naming the current and past heads of state of Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, their relatives and other senior officials. The super-injunction invokes "national security" grounds to prevent reporting about the case, by anyone, in order to "prevent damage to Australia's international relations". The court-issued gag order follows the secret 19 June 2014 indictment of seven senior executives from subsidiaries of Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The case concerns allegations of multi-million dollar inducements made by agents of the RBA subsidiaries Securency and Note Printing Australia in order to secure contracts for the supply of Australian-style polymer bank notes to the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries.
to the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries. The suppression order lists 17 individuals, including "any current or former Prime Minister of Malaysia", "Truong Tan San, currently President of Vietnam", "Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (also known as SBY), currently President of Indonesia (since 2004)", "Megawati Sukarnoputri (also known as Mega), a former President of Indonesia (20012004) and current leader of the PDI-P political party" and 14 other senior officials and relatives from those countries, who specifically may not be named in connection with the corruption investigation.
The document also specifically bans the publication of the order itself as well as an affidavit affirmed last month by Australia's representative to ASEAN Gillian Bird, who has just been appointed as Australia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. The gag order effectively blacks out the largest high-level corruption case in Australia and the region.
The last known blanket suppression order of this nature was granted in 1995 and concerned the joint US-Australian intelligence spying operation against the Chinese Embassy in Canberra.
WikiLeaks' publisher Julian Assange said about the order:

"With this order, the worst in living memory, the Australian government is not just gagging the Australian press, it is blindfolding the Australian public. This is not simply a question of the Australian government failing to give this international corruption case the public scrutiny it is due. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop must explain why she is threatening every Australian with imprisonment in an attempt to cover up an embarrassing corruption scandal involving the Australian government."

"The concept of 'national security' is not meant to serve as a blanket phrase to cover up serious corruption allegations involving government officials, in Australia or elsewhere. It is in the public interest for the press to be able to report on this case, which concerns the subsidiaries of the Australian central bank. Who is brokering our deals, and how are we brokering them as a nation? Corruption investigations and secret gag orders for 'national security' reasons are strange bedfellows. It is ironic that it took Tony Abbott to bring the worst of 'Asian Values' to Australia."

Keywords: Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Supreme Court of Victoria, Justice Hollingworth, DFAT, AFP, DPP, Thomas Brady, Peter Sinclair Hutchinson, John Leckenby, Steven Kim Wong, Christian Boillot, Clifford John Gerathy, Myles Andrew Curtis, Mohammad Najib Abdul Razak, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Pak Lah, Puan Noni, Mahathir Mohamed, Daim Zainuddin, Rafidah Aziz, Hamid Albar, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, SBY, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Laksamana Sukardi, Truong Tan San, Nguyen Tan Dung, Le Duc Thuy, Nong Duc Manh, Note Printing Australia Pty Ltd, Securency, Gillian Elizabeth Bird, Reserve Bank of Australia, super-injunction, suppression order, censorship, corruption, bribery
Read the Australia-wide censorship order for corruption case involving Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Australia-wide censorship order for corruption
case involving Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam
WikiLeaks release: July 29, 2014
Blanket censorship order preventing reporting on Australia's largest financial corruption case and any
derived allegations against the current and former heads of state of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam and
other senior officials. The document also specifically bans publication of the order itself and the June 2014
affidavit of Australia's newly appointed representative to the UN, Gillian Bird. The order was granted under
"national security" grounds in order to "prevent damage to Australia's international relations". The order
was issued following the indictment of seven senior executives related to the Reserve Bank of Australia.
The case concerns allegations of multi-million-dollar payments to persons with high-level political
connections in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia in order to secure contracts for the production of

[Peter Lemkin]

I guess Assange will now get less than zero help [the amount they've given toward his situation so far] from the Oz government now! "Once there was a way to go back home....."

I'm also shocked to hear that Oz is involved in bank 'monkey business'....ghosts of Nugan-Hand? If it isn't making or banking illegal money, it is playing around [it seems] with the illegal printing of it....money - the root of most evils.

[Magda Hassan]

I guess Assange will now get less than zero help [the amount they've given toward his situation so far] from the Oz government now! "Once there was a way to go back home....."

He has always received absolutely no help only hinderance from the Australian government. The only one who showed any interest in him as an Australian citizen in need was Kevin Rudd. And they got rid of him.

I'm also shocked to hear that Oz is involved in bank 'monkey business'....ghosts of Nugan-Hand? If it isn't making or banking illegal money, it is playing around [it seems] with the illegal printing of it....money - the root of most evils.

We'll never know exactly what is happening will we if the Australian government has its way. Even knowledge of he suppression order is suppressed. All to cover up corruption. Nothing to do with 'national security'.

I saw some things about it last year. There is a program on it here. Might need a proxy to watch it.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2...857148.htm
There is a transcript of it available at the link above.

[Peter Lemkin]

Magda, I hope the police don't come knocking on your door for posting this. ::dictator::::

[Magda Hassan]

Magda, I hope the police don't come knocking on your door for posting this. ::dictator::::

Everyone else is on holidays but I have no plans for going away so if you don't hear from me send a search party with human rights lawyers. ::drwho::

[Magda Hassan]

::
Well, Indonesia has let the cat out of the bag. Wonder what the Australian media will do now? Australia, particularly with this current tea party type extreme right wing government, already has a very strained relationship with Indonesia (been busted for spying on them and the President's missus, stealing oil, human trafficking of refugees, unauthorised incursion into Indonesian waters by Australian navy, and comparing their FM to a Filipino porn star just for starters) Indonesia has also just elected a new government which plans on having even less to do with Australia.

Indonesian president calls on Australia to explain WikiLeaks gag order

Fresh blow for Australian relations with Indonesia after Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expresses shock and hurt at naming of his country's politicians in injunction

• Lenore Taylor, political editor
  
• theguardian.com, Friday 1 August 2014 09.05 AEST
  

Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reportedly said any Australian investigation should be open and transparent. Photograph: Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images

The Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has called on the Australian government to explain the sweeping gagging order on international bribery allegations, saying he was shocked at Indonesian politicians being named in the injunction.

The Australian government's suppression order intended to prevent "international relations" being harmed by court proceedings appears to have instead created a problem, with Yudhoyono calling for an explanation.
The president held a media conference late on Thursday to complain about the Indonesians who have been named in the injunction, Antara news agency and the Jakarta Post reported.
"We are shocked by the report by WikiLeaks. Given the facts I have obtained ... the report is hurtful," Yudhoyono said.
"Such a policy by Australia to hide [alleged involvement] of certain non-Australian individuals is something that I am not comfortable with because it could instead trigger suspicions and accusations," Yudhoyono reportedly said.
"I am aware that this kind of report can go viral very quickly," he said. Yudhoyono added it was very sensitive because it related to the honour and dignity of the Indonesian politicians named.
He reportedly said any Australian investigation should be open and transparent.
The Australian embassy in Jakarta was forced to issue a statement of reassurance that the injunction had been intended to protect senior figures from "innuendo".
The order of the supreme court of Victoria still prevents the contents of the case, or the injunction itself, from being reported in Australia, but it has been widely reported in the region after being revealed by WikiLeaks on its website.
Yudhoyono said his foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, had spoken to the Indonesian ambassador in Australia and the Australian ambassador in Indonesia before the media conference.
According to Indonesian news website Viva, the secretary general of Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P party, Tjahjo Kumolo, also demanded clarification as to why Indonesian politicians had been named in the leaked document.
The Australian embassy in Jakarta later issued this statement: "The Australian government obtained suppression orders to prevent publication of information that could suggest the involvement in corruption of specific senior political figures in the region, whether in fact they were or not.
"The government considers that the suppression orders remain the best means for protecting the senior political figures from the risk of unwarranted innuendo.
"This is a long-running, complicated case which names a large number of individuals. The naming of such figures in the orders does not imply wrongdoing on their part.
"The government stresses that the Indonesian [identities redacted] are not the subject of the Securency proceedings. We take the breach of the suppression orders extremely seriously and we are referring it to the police."
The leaked super-injunction comes as Australia and Indonesia were repairing their relationship after the revelations in documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden that Australia had spied in Yudhoyono, his wife and other figures in his inner circle.
The injunction was issued by the criminal division of the supreme court of Victoria "to prevent damage to Australia's international relations that may be caused by the publication of material that may damage the reputations of specified individuals who are not the subject of charges in these proceedings".

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/au...-gag-order