By Jade Toomey, ABC
AFP Assistant Commissioner for Counterterrorism and Special Investigations Stephen Nutt spoke today about the woman's arrest. Photo: Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police have charged a woman with foreign interference, for the third time since new laws were introduced in 2018.
The woman, a Chinese national and Australian permanent resident, faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday accused of covertly gathering information about the Canberra branch of Buddhist association Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) alleged the woman had engaged in covert or deceptive conduct since 2022 to collect information on the religious group, which is attached to the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and is outlawed in China.
The group's Australian leader was barred from entering China in 2017, but the religion is free to practice in Australia.
The woman is also accused of having tasked associates to help her collect information on behalf of, or in collaboration with, the People's Republic of China (PRC) to support their intelligence activities.
She is facing the Commonwealth offence of reckless foreign interference, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment.
An AFP informant told the court they believed the woman had been receiving personal taskings from a Chinese public security bureau office through an encrypted app, which was allegedly found on the woman's phone during a raid of her premises last week.
It's alleged she received money from Chinese-based financial institutions and was of "substantial means".
Bail denied on fears woman is a flight risk
The woman cannot be named due to a temporary suppression order, which was granted after her lawyer argued that identifying her could make her a target for reprisal action by people critical of the PRC.
Her lawyer, James Maher, also argued that the woman should be granted bail due to a legal presumption in favour of releasing her, and due to her strong business and commercial ties in the ACT.
One of the woman's associates had also offered a $50,000 surety to the court.
But bail was refused by Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker, who agreed with federal prosecutors that the woman could be a flight risk and could interfere with digital evidence or witnesses.
Police said the app on the woman's phone could be accessed remotely and feared the evidence could be destroyed or altered during the investigation.
Magistrate Walker said she thought that implied that if the communication could be accessed remotely, it could also be "continued".
Other suggestions of 'infiltrating'
The court also heard suggestions that another person had been recruited to assist the woman in "infiltrating" the Guan Yin Citta organisation.
Police said the woman had visited China regularly since she moved to Australia to study in 2007, but her visits had become more frequent and longer in length since the alleged offending.
The court also heard the woman's husband, who was believed to be in China, held the role of vice captain in a public security ministry in a Chinese province.
She also visited the Chinese consulate in Canberra in the days after her property was raided, where police understand she has a personal contact, the court heard.
Magistrate Walker said that detail was "significant" given the consulate's capacity to provide emergency travel documents at short notice.
Police said that if the woman did try to abscond from Australia, there would be a 72-hour delay in them being notified by the country's monitoring system.
Magistrate Walker also said there was considerable consequence if the woman did manage to abscond from Australia, given the absence of any bilateral extradition treaty between Australia and China.
A letter from the Commonwealth Attorney General's department tendered to the court also emphasised the risk that the allegation that the woman was being tasked by the PRC made it more likely that Chinese authorities would refuse any extradition request.
The matter will return to court on September 1.
- ABC
