Timor-Leste: Timor-Leste Presses Ahead with Challenge to Timor Sea Oil and Gas Treaty

Jun 5, 2015 | Daniel Hurst, The Guardian
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Timor-Leste is set to resume a formal challenge against an oil and gas treaty that became mired in controversy following claims Australia bugged the cabinet room in Dili to gain the upper hand in negotiations. But the government of Timor-Leste has decided to withdraw an International Court of Justice case against Australia relating to evidence seized by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) in raids in December 2013. Those raids, authorised by the Australian attorney general, George Brandis, targeted the offices of Timor-Leste’s Canberra-based legal adviser, Bernard Collaery, “on the grounds that the documents contained intelligence related to security matters”.