Well-known justice activist Shirley Shackleton managed to interrupt celebrations in Dili marking the 20th anniversary of Timor Leste’s independence to hand a petition demanding Australia end its persecution of Bernard Collaery and Witness K to Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne.
Shackleton’s husband, Greg, was murdered in Balibo along with four other journalists in 1975. She has never given up the quest for justice.
Activists from the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOTT) delivered a 10-metre-long banner covered with the signatures of 1300 Timorese to the Australian embassy in Dili on September 16. The signatures were collected in protest at the Australian government's persecution of former spy Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, for allegedly blowing the whistle on the 2004 bugging of Timor-Leste Cabinet offices by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS).