Bali Nine: AFP strenuously defends actions over 2005 drug-smuggling case
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Version 0 of 1. 11.56am AEST02:56 Summary Bridie Jabour What did we learn from the AFP’s press conference on their arrest in the role of the Bali Nine? Here are the key points: We can’t apologise for the role that we have to try to stop illicit drugs from coming into this community. Yes, I knew full well by handing over the information and requesting surveillance, if they found them in possession of drugs they’d take action and expose them to the death penalty. I knew that. But I weighed up a number of things in my mind as to what I thought was appropriate and I’ve agonised over it for 10 years now. Public references to blood on our hands, to shopping the Bali Nine in exchange for some conspiracy, cartoons depicting the AFP as the firing squad or the Grim Reaper are not only misinformed and ill guided, they are in my view in very bad taste. 11.39am AEST02:39 The press conference ends on a question about if the ministerial directions to the AFP are legally binding. Andrew Colvin says there is nothing legally binding in the ministerial guidelines about what he should or should not do. That’s the statutory independence of the AFP, the statutory independence of my role as commissioner. The government can give me guidance and tell me its policy priorities but ultimately I make the decisions about what the AFP do and don’t do. He acknowledges the press conference has been a long time coming, thanks media, and with that, leaves the room. 11.34am AEST02:34 Asked if it would make the AFP’s job easier if it was simply against the law to refer Australians to countries that have the death penalty, Andrew Colvin says it would “severely impact” the ability of the AFP to stop drugs coming into Australia. I’m not saying that just to scare the horses. You only have to think about the region we’re in. We are a relatively affluent country sitting in Asia, where we are a market for drugs. We’re a market for transnational crime. That is a decision that others will have to make if that’s what they wish to do. My advice would be to be very careful and be very wary of the impact that would have. 11.26am AEST02:26 Was Australia’s relationship with Indonesia, specifically the need for Indonesia to co-operate on counter-terrorism operations, taken into account when giving Indonesia information about the Bali Nine? Andrew Colvin says “categorically no”. He says it is “offensive” and “fanciful” to think the AFP made the decision to curry favour with Indonesia. Mike Phelan was the one who actually made the decision at the time and he says the relationship with Indonesia did not enter his mind at all. He says he has agonised over the decision for the past ten years. Yes, I knew full well by handing over the information and requesting surveillance, if they found them in possession of drugs they’d take action and expose them to the death penalty. I knew that. But I weighed up a number of things in my mind as to what I thought was appropriate and I’ve agonised over it for 10 years now. And every time I look back, I still think it’s a difficult decision, but given what I knew at that particular time and what our officers knew, I would take a lot of convincing to make a different decision. It was not easy. 11.14am AEST02:14 Question: If an identical situation were to arise today, under the current AFP guidelines, would the decision be made again to share information with Indonesia? Andrew Colvin says maybe not, but he cannot say for sure. They [AFP investigators] may well not choose to go down the same path they did in 2005 but I can’t get into the mind of every investigator and know everything that they’re thinking. Question: China has a very strict policy on the death penalty, is the AFP still in a position to feed the country information? We are and we have to be, but we have a guideline that very tightly dictates the considerations we have to take into account. There are a number of instances ... where we have to make a conscious decision not to because those guidelines are in place. Does it limit, does it restrict at times our ability to work in a completely open fashion with our partners? Yes, it does. I think that’s appropriate. Because Australia has a long-standing objection to the death penalty and we have to be mindful of that. But to do the work we do, we need to be able to work with those countries. Updated at 11.29am AEST 11.08am AEST02:08 AFP are asked if any minister’s offices were involved in the decision to give Indonesia information about the Bali Nine. Mike Phelan says there was no briefing for any minister’s office or anyone in government, the decision was ultimately made by the AFP. It was clearly an operational decision. Asked if the AFP would make the same decision again, Andrew Colvin says the guidelines have changed substantially since 2005 so he cannot give an ironclad yes or no. 11.05am AEST02:05 Question: Does the AFP owe the families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran an apology? Andrew Colvin: No, I don’t believe we owe them an apology. It’s a very difficult question. I mean, we can’t apologise for the role that we have to try to stop illicit drugs from coming into this community. 11.03am AEST02:03 Deputy AFP commissioner Leanne Close is now making a statement. She is talking about the AFP’s guidelines on the death penalty She says the guidelines now must on a case-by-case basis weigh the risk of death penalty to Australians based on AFP information with other factors. She says the need for law enforcement agencies to exchange information with foreign counterparts is still recognised in the guidelines. A senior manager holding at least the rank of commander is the final decision-maker in such cases. Our main objective is to protect the community from harm. If we didn’t have the ability to work with all of our law enforcement partners, we simply couldn’t function. I know it would be impossible to do our job. Illegal drugs are a scourge in our communities, and the AFP and our partner agencies work hard to fight this crime. Updated at 11.28am AEST 10.59am AEST01:59 Deputy AFP commissioner Mike Phelan says the AFP were not aware of Myuran Sukumaran before his arrest, and it was the Indonesian authorities who identified him as part of the syndicate. He also dismisses suggestions the AFP could have arrested someone on charges of conspiracy before the Bali Nine left Australia. That’s absolutely false. If we’d charged someone with conspiracy at that time, a first-year lawyer would have been able to walk at a first hearing. There was simply no information. There was no evidence. You must remember this was an investigation that started off as an intelligence probe. So there was no physical surveillance in Australia, no electronic surveillance and no sworn testimony from anybody, so it was extremely difficult to try to prove [charges of conspiracy], actually, impossible in these circumstances. Updated at 11.26am AEST 10.51am AEST01:51 Deputy commissioner Mike Phelan is now speaking. He outlines the AFP’s investigation that was already under way before the tip-off from Scott Rush’s father. He says Rush had three different travel alerts placed on him, two for reasons completely separate to Rush’s father’s tip-off. The important point to make here is that if Scott Rush’s father or his lawyer acting on his behalf had never made contact with the AFP, we would still be in exactly the same position we are today. It’s also been reported that some of the information that Scott Rush’s father gave us – in other words that his son may have been going overseas to do no good – formed the basis of our complaint to the Indonesians. Not one bit of the information that came from Scott Rush’s father made its way to Indonesia. Not one bit. Updated at 11.23am AEST 10.48am AEST01:48 Andrew Colvin ends his opening statement criticising cartoons that have depicted the AFP as a firing squad and says the criticism of the AFP’s role in the arrest has been ill-informed. Decision like this aren’t taken lightly. They’re agonising decisions. Police officers have to make difficult decisions each and every day. They’re made by individuals whose motivations and intentions are to protect the community from crime and to protect the community from those who would do us harm. I also have an obligation to the men and women of the AFP to ensure that their reputation is taken care of and public references to blood on our hands, to shopping the Bali Nine in exchange for some conspiracy, cartoons depicting the AFP as the firing squad or the Grim Reaper are not only misinformed and ill guided, they are in my view in very bad taste. Police naturally have thick skins. You wouldn’t be a police officer if you didn’t have a thick skin. But they also have friends and family who read and see those types of headlines, those types of comments, and are influenced by them. Let’s not forget that police are members of the community as well and they are also human beings. Updated at 11.22am AEST 10.45am AEST01:45 Colvin says he cannot be sure this won't happen again Andrew Colvin on the AFP’s guidelines on dealing with countries that have the death penalty: They have been endorsed and supported by successive governments and they are monitored regularly and updated when they need to be ... it’s imperative that we can work with our partners. On the key question of could this happen again, I wish I could assure you that this scenario could never happen again. But I cannot. Colvin says Australia is a very lucrative market for illicit drugs. So to dent this supply of narcotics, law enforcement agencies, especially the AFP, work very closely with our partners in the region who, unfortunately, are sometimes source countries and transit countries for illicit goods into Australia. It’s a hard reality that many of these countries still have the death penalty for serious offences. For this reason, we cannot limit our cooperation just to those countries that have a similar judicial system or similar policies to that of our own. We must be able to work effectively with those countries that are closest to us when you consider the region that we are part of. Updated at 11.21am AEST 10.41am AEST01:41 "We didn't have enough information to arrest the Bali Nine" Andrew Colvin says there has been a lot of misreporting around the AFP’s investigation and emphasises it did not start after the tip-off from Scott Rush’s father. He says the AFP were already investigating a syndicate recruiting people to courier narcotics. At the time we were working with a very incomplete picture. We didn’t know everybody involved, we didn’t know all the plans, or even what the illicit commodity was likely to be. We were not in a position to arrest any of the members of the Bali Nine prior to their departure from Australia. At this time AFP consulted and engaged our Indonesian partners and asked for their assistance. It was operationally appropriate and it was consistent with the guidelines as they existed then. I can assure you if we had enough information to arrest the Bali Nine before they left Australia, we would have done just that. Updated at 11.20am AEST 10.37am AEST01:37 Executions "unnecessary": AFP The press conference has begun with Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin saying his thoughts are with the families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. He says their executions are unnecessary. It is not necessarily my intention to convince the public to agree with the decisions that we made in 2005. Policing is difficult, and it involves making very difficult decisions. What I want to do today is to give the public enough information, the right information, [so the public can make up their own minds]. 10.29am AEST01:29 You can read a full report on the lead up to the press conference here. Guardian staff and agencies report: Pressure has been mounting on the AFP to explain its role in tipping off Indonesia about the Bali Nine drug-smuggling operation in 2005. Colvin will also discuss the AFP’s guidelines in relation to matters subject to the death penalty as they stood in 2005 and now. The federal government has said police are still taking the death penalty into account before tipping off foreign agencies about suspected Australian criminals, in line with guidelines Labor issued in 2009. Updated at 10.35am AEST 10.19am AEST01:19 Good morning. You join us as Australian Federal Police commissioner, Andrew Colvin, and deputy commissioners Mike Phelan and Leanne Close are about to discuss the AFP’s role in the arrest of the Bali Nine. The press conference comes after Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed last week in Indonesia after being caught trying to smuggle heroin out of the country in 2005. Two-flag event for AFP Bali Nine presser. #auspol aap covering pic.twitter.com/VBWKzzVb7r |