Australia charges ex-official for security breach linked to probe into China’s political meddling

Roger Uren is married to US citizen Sheri Yan, who was jailed in 2016 for bribing a UN official

Security agents said sensitive documents were found in his home amid an investigation into Communist Party links to Australian politics

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Roger Uren pictured in 2014. Photo: Handout

Published: 12:30pm, 24 Oct 2019Updated: 1:43pm, 25 Oct 2019

A former senior Australian intelligence official has appeared in court charged with breaching secrecy laws over classified documents intelligence agents say they found at his home during an investigation into potential Chinese links to Australian politics.

Roger Uren appeared briefly in the Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court in Canberra on Wednesday. He was released on bail and will next appear in court on February 5. He did not enter any pleas.

Australian Federal Police alleged in a statement on Thursday that Uren “illegally dealt with classified intelligence information”.

Uren was assistant director of the prime minister’s intelligence analysis agency, the Office of National Assessments, before he resigned in 2001.

Sheri Yan, left, pictured outside court in New York in 2016. Photo: AP

He is the husband of United States citizen Sheri Yan, who was sentenced in the US District Court in New York in 2016 to 20 months in prison after she pleaded guilty to bribing the UN General Assembly’s then-President John Ashe.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation agents investigating potential links between China’s Communist Party and Australian politics raided the Canberra home of Uren and his lobbyist wife on October 6, 2015, and again on September 22, 2016. The agents say they discovered sensitive documents.