Witness J, referred to in court documents by the placeholder name Alan Johns[1] and in custody as Prisoner 123458,[2] is a former Australian intelligence officer who was secretly tried and imprisoned in 2019 for communicating sensitive information over an insecure channel.
[2] Witness J plead guilty and on 19 February 2019 was sentenced to two years and seven month in prison for using an insecure channel to communicate classified information.
[16] Witness J took unsuccessful civil action in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, claiming that his human rights had been violated.
[18] The case sparked debate in the media about the unprecedented secrecy of the proceedings and its violation of the open justice principle underpinning Australia's legal system.
[1][19] The secrecy of the trial was widely condemned, with New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Anthony Whealy questioning whether Australia is becoming a totalitarian state.
[12][24] On 9 June 2021 a public hearing into how Part 3, Division 1 of the NSI Act was used to secretly convict Witness J was held by the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor (INSLM), Grant Donaldson SC.
[27] In July 2022 Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus directed the INSLM to review the whole of the NSI Act, including the provisions under which details of Witness J's case were made secret.