Croatian Six – Croatia, the War, and the Future

A Moving Memorial Mass Tribute In Sydney Australia To Mile Nekic – One Of „Croatian Six“

January 22, 2023 by inavukic 10 Comments

_{From Left: Barry Lowe, Marijana Rudan, Vesna Krizmanic, Marko Franovic, Ina Vukic, Cecile Lowe. Inset: Mile Nekic}

On a busy, working day, Friday 20th January 2023, a Memorial Mass was held at the St Anthony’s Church, Croatian Catholic Centre, Summer Hill, Sydney, Australia. It was a holy mass honouring the memory of a Croatian selfless patriot who walked and lived with the Croatian Community in Sydney for many years and passed away at the age of 75 in Osijek Croatia on 10 December 2022. After immigrating to Australia in 1969 Mile Nekic lived a peaceful productive life until 1979 when along with five other Croatian immigrants’ lives known as Croatian Six took a deeply tragic turn. The six men were arrested on allegations of planning terrorist attacks in Sydney area, tried and convicted to 15 years of prison each. They always maintained their innocence to be released from prison in 1991 on good behaviour around the same time when the Australian television investigative journalist Chris Masters tracked down their accuser, Vico Virkez, who confessed that his testimony against the Croatian Six was false and that he was a Serb national Vitomir Misimovic on Communist Yugoslavia Secret Services UDBa assignment to blacken Croatians as extremist terrorists. Almost immediately after being released from prison in Australia Nekic packed his meagre belongings and headed back to war-torn Croatia to help defend it from the brutal, genocidal Serb and Yugoslavia Army aggression. His life’s dream had always been to see Croatia free from communist Yugoslavia. He died as a retired Croatian Army Officer; a hero of oppressed people by anyone’s definition. He died yearning for final justice for him and all the Croatian Six; he was not meant to see the day when the outcome of the Supreme Court of NSW in Australia would deliver the findings of the late 2022 ordered Judicial Review into convictions for planning terrorist attacks from 1981 against the Croatian Six.

_{Ina Vukic, Readings from the Bible, Mile Nekic Memorial Mass Sydney}

Today, there are several sources that indicate that the Yugoslav UDB set up the case against the Croatian Six, and these sources include the declassification in 2016 of the relevant National Archives of the Commonwealth of Australia, the publication in 2019 of the book “Reasonable Doubt: Spies, Police and the Croatian Six” by Hamish McDonald, McDonald’s interview with American national security professor John Schindler, publication of the book “The Secret Cold War, The Official History of ASIO, 1975-1989.” by John Blaxland and Rhys Crawley, 2017, Hamish McDonald’s 2012 book “Framed”, which succinctly contextualises the circumstances under which the Croatian Six were charged and convicted of conspiring to bomb or attempt terrorist attacks on Sydney, and interview by Vice Virkez with ABC journalist Chris Masters, in which Virkez (Misimovic) clearly admits, among other things, that he lied in his statements to the police and the court against the Croatian six.

**_{Fra Davor Filko , St Anthony’s Church, Croatian Catholic Centre Summer Hill, Sydney, Australia}**

After the Memorial Mass on Friday 20 January 2023 delivered by Fra Davor Filko touching memories of and tributes to Mile Nekic were shared by Mr Barry Lowe, a prominent former Australian journalist and Ms Marijana Rudan, a journalist, documentary film producer and a former television presenter.

“It’s a bit painful reflecting on a life that was as difficult as the life Mile lead. 10 years in some of the worst prisons in Australia, the whole time knowing you’re innocent. Then the rest of your life waiting and hoping for that wrong to be righted,” Barry Lowe said, continuing:

“I think some of the people like me who tried to get the Croatian Six verdict over-turned – and there were many of us, some of them in this church today – have carried a sense of guilt that we couldn’t have done more. For me the Croatian Six campaign had a personal element, Mile was my friend and my starting point in wanting to see justice prevailing.

But I think the remarkable thing about Mile was that he managed live a full and productive life despite the bad hand of cards that he had been dealt. He was a patriot who made a significant contribution to Croatia’s struggle for independence – and he was awarded the medals for bravery that prove it. His role in leading a military intelligence unit that worked behind enemy lines, is an important chapter in the history of the Croatian resistance in eastern Slavonia.

_{Barry Lowe delivering his speech at Memorial Mass for Mile Nekic, Sydney}

But this productive life also included the warmth and generosity and total commitment of loyalty that he gave to his friends. An anecdote from the time soon after I got to know Mile – which started when I interviewed him about his success as an artist while serving time in Long Bay jail: My wife Cecile and I had just moved into a small terrace house in Marrickville – a bit of wreck, in dire need of some major renovation. But I barely knew which end of a hammer you’re meant to hold. Mile dropped in one day, had a look around and said ‘I can help with this’. The next day, a Saturday, 6 o’clock in the morning we’re woken by a knock on the door and Mile walks in with a couple of mates, a cement mixer, bags of cement, timber, power tools, you name it. All the weekend they’re pulling up floors, stripping down walls and in a couple of days we’ve got a reasonably presentable house. I couldn’t get Mile to take a cent for the work or supplies, he even insisted on buying the beer for the post-job celebration.

We kept in touch, and we spent time together when the war was on, often sitting in the bar that used to operate in the underground shopping mall beneath the central square in Osijek, a safe haven when the city was being shelled.

Then there was a couple of decades when we didn’t have much contact until I heard about the new effort to reopen the Croatian Six case. I tracked Mile down and last April went to see him, Cecile and I driving from Salzburg through territory I hadn’t visited since the war. The four us – including Mile’s lovely wife Mirjana, who we really bonded with despite a reliance on Google Translate – had a wonderful four days together, kicking over the old traces, visiting the ruined water tower at Vukovar, touring the underground wine cellars in Ilok. I’ve been reflecting recently how much more painful Mile’s death would have been for me if I hadn’t had those few days with him last year.

Then the news a few months ago that the judicial review into the Croatian Six had been ordered. I rang Mile – in the middle of the night for him. He was over the moon. He sent me a message the next day saying it was important to him that I had been the one to give him the news. He talked about returning to Australia to have his day in court.

Well, that’s not going to happen now. There’s a bitter irony about how things turned out. Mile always wanted to clear his name and have the world know that he wasn’t the terrorist he’d been labelled with. I think he had imposed a sort of exile on himself and felt he couldn’t come back to Australia until his name was cleared. He didn’t get that opportunity that but at least he learnt that it was going to happen.

Of course, the Croatian Six conspiracy wasn’t just about jailing six innocent men. It’s objective was to defame the entire Croatian community in Australia. I think Mile somehow assumed some of the burden of guilt for that being allowed to happen.

I’ve been advised to steer away from politics in this speech. But I can talk about religion, this seems like an appropriate place. One of the tenets of our faith is forgiveness. And I can, with difficultly I admit, forgive those who made this injustice happen. But they need to show remorse and contrition. Some of them – former public officials – are still out there. They need to speak out now and say, yes this did happen, we were part of it and now it needs to be put right. Rest in Peace Mile.”

“Last year in May, thanks to the efforts of Ina Vukic, i visited Mile Nekic and his wife Mirjana in Osijek for a research project. I stayed with them in their home, where Mile recounted all the details of his difficult life to me,” said Marijana Rudan and continued:

“There in his tiny kitchen while he smoked many cigarettes and Mirjana made coffee, he explained how he’d met my uncle at the airport in Vienna as they boarded the same plane to Australia in the late 1960s.

Young migrants with no money, bound by their desire to escape Yugoslavia and start again in a free land of opportunities.

‘I know your father and your uncle well. Welcome Marijana,’ he said.

I immediately sensed two things in his large blue eyes as he spoke.

I saw that this man carried so much pain and that did not surprise me knowing the details of his life, yet despite the years and the many times life had broken Mile with its injustice, his eyes still held onto hope …

_{Marijana Rudan delivering speech at Mile Nekic Memorial Mass, Sydney}

‘What will you do with my story?’ Mile asked.

‘What would you like me to do with your story Mile?’ I asked him. ‘What is your wish?’

‘I just want people to know that I wasn’t guilty. I just wanted to live my truth and for that they wrongly judged me. I want the world to know that I was innocent.’

I told Mile, that I would do my best to make sure his wish came true.

‘But Mile’, I said,

‘Please eat something and look after yourself.

I want you to live to see the day when everyone will know the truth.’

and Mirjana laughed. ‘It’s a good day when Mile remembers to eat.’

That evening in Osijek Mile and his wife showed me their city, the cafes they frequented, the main square and then they took me to dinner in one of the nicest restaurants. ‘See, I do eat Marijana, but for me it’s more important that you eat and that you remember your time here with us in Osijek.’

I will never forget his kindness.

A few months after I left Osijek, the news spread that a Judicial Inquiry had been ordered and that the evidence that led to the conviction and jailing of six innocent Croatian men, including Mile, would now be re-opened for examination.

I immediately called them.

‘The time has come Mile. The time has come.’

‘Are you still going to tell my story?” He asked me.

‘Yes, of course, but I am working with a team and these things take time. Look how long you have waited already. Over 42 years. Just a little more now. Hold tight.’

‘OK’ he said, ‘you will tell my story one day’.

When Vesna Krizmanic rang me to say Mile had died, we were both in shock and shed tears.

Over the years Vesna and Lydia had shared many stories about Mile’s kind heart.

‘He was a dreamer’ said Lydia ‘a true artist by nature.’

‘Mile was ruled by his emotions and his ideals, but somehow he was unfairly judged and so misunderstood.’

Mile Nekic lived his entire life yearning for freedom through expression in his fight for Croatia and through the stories he told in his artwork.

In one way, I’m not surprised that Mile chose to die on the night Croatia beat Brazil in the World Cup. Little Croatia beating the world’s greatest footballing nation. What a story of resilience, a fight to the end.

Mile’s heart was probably bursting. Because dreams do come true…

So will yours Mile Nekic.

Rest in peace dear Mile.

And know that your story will be shared, and your innocence honoured.

We all gathered here in your name today promise you this. Amen.”

With proud memories we hope and trust. Rest in God’s peace Mile Nekic and may the perpetual light shine upon you – always!

With thanks to Branko Miletic, Written and compiled by Ina Vukic

PRITISNI ZA OVAJ ČLANAK NA HRVATSKOM JEZIKU/ CLICK FOR THIS ARTICLE IN CROATIAN LANGUAGE

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Barry Lowe, Branko Miletic, Chris Masters, Croatia, Croatian Six, Fra Davor Filko, Hamish McDonald, Ina Vukic, judicial review, Marijana Rudan, Marko Franovic, Memorial Mass for Mile Nekic, Mile Nekic, Vesna Krizmanic

Croatian Six – Judicial Inquiry Into Terror Convictions 43 Years On

September 4, 2022 by inavukic 3 Comments

It’s been 43 years 8 months and 21 days since the Croatian Six men were convicted of attempts of terrorist acts in Sydney, Australia and Justice Victor Maxwell who delivered the prison sentences was most likely completely unaware that before him was a masterpiece of lies and machinations of communist Yugoslavia operations against Croatians who rejected communism and migrated to Australia after World War Two. Perhaps Justice Maxwell felt that things were not “right” but was in no position to rule otherwise? May that too will become apparent and clear one day.

It is now clear more than ever that the communist Yugoslavia in its rampage against Croatians who rejected communism and Yugoslavia did include not only purges by mass murders but also framing Croats for terrorist activities around the world due to which Croatians living in West had suffered awful consequences to their good name particularly during the 1960’s and 1970’s while Josip Broz Tito was alive and head of communist Yugoslavia. And so finally, after several attempts since 1982 to achieve a judicial inquiry in this greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of Australia we are looking at the best hope for justice for the Croatian Six men sent to jail on attempted terrorism charges with fabricated evidence and lies that came from a Serbian citizen infiltrating the Croatian community in Sydney as a patriotic Croat! The Croatian Six had always maintained their innocence of the crimes they were charged with eventually imprisoned for ten years each before being released early in 1991.

Finally, the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney Australia has 30 August 2022 ordered a judicial inquiry into the 1981 convictions of the so-called “Croatian Six” over an alleged conspiracy to bomb four businesses in Sydney and cut the city’s water supply, amid grave concerns the men were framed by a Yugoslav spy. This historic decision for a judicial inquiry was delivered by Justice Robertson Wright ordered a judicial inquiry into the 41-year-old convictions (and just over 43 years since the indictment) of Maksimilian Bebic, Mile Nekic, Vjekoslav Brajkovic, Anton Zvirotic, Ilija Kokotovic and Joseph Kokotovic, who were sentenced in February of 1981 to a maximum of 15 years’ prison each in relation to the alleged terrorist plot.

As I wrote in my previous posts here these four men of Croatian descent and birth who migrated to Australia and until their shocking arrest for alleged plot to bomb two travel agencies in Sydney, a Serbian club, the Elizabethan Theatre in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, and Sydney water supply pipes connected to the Warragamba Dam on the outskirts of Sydney, as well as other offences of stealing or possessing explosives in Lithgow and Sydney in 1979 all of these six men were decent, honest people and hard workers and it took the communist Yugoslavia dark secret services forces, using a Serb national as a spy to turn them into monsters the world loathed. In that loathing all Croatians living in Australia particularly, who fought for an independent Croatia during World War Two or who simply fled Yugoslavia because they did not tolerate the oppressive, murderous communist regime.

In paragraph 48 of his determination for a judicial inquiry dated 30 August 2022 Justice Wright said that “a significant amount of other material in the declassified ASIO documents forcefully suggests that, at least, Mr Virkez (Serb communist Yugoslavia operative) was an informer to the Yugoslav Consulate-General for a number of months prior to the arrest of the Croatian Six in February 1979, if not a Yugoslav agent or agent provocateur”.

On Page 31, paragraph 72, of Justice Wrights 39 August 2022 determination that a judicial inquiry is to be held stated: “Having regard to all of the material, which was provided by the applicants and the Crown and which included summaries of or extracts from the evidence at trial, it appeared to me, and I was comfortably satisfied, that there are a number of doubts or questions as to parts of the evidence in the case and the guilt of the Croatian Six,”

and in paragraph 73 Justice Wright continues: “First, it appeared to me that there is a doubt, or at least a question, as to whether the evidence of Mr Virkez at trial was deliberately false in a number of respects including when he gave evidence about the alleged bombing conspiracy, when he denied spying on the Croatians, and when he denied giving evidence at the behest of anyone connected with the Police Special Branch or the Yugoslav government. I was satisfied that this doubt or question arose having regard to the information identified above, including but not limited to the information contained in: the declassified ASIO documentation; the book Reasonable Doubt: Spies, Police and the Croatian Six; Mr (Hamish) McDonald’s interview with Professor (John) Schindler; the book The Secret Cold War, The Official History of ASIO, 1975 – 1989; the e-book Framed; Mr Virkez’s interview with Mr (Chris) Masters, parts of which were included the Four Corners program; the ABC podcasts including Mr Cunliffe’s information; and, the documents and accounts concerning Mr Cavanagh’s evidence.”

In paragraph 77 Justice Wright of his determination for a judicial inquiry said “… it also appeared that there is a doubt, or at least a question, as to the guilt of the Croatian Six as a result the real possibility that the Yugoslav Intelligence Service used Mr Virkez as an agent provocateur or informer, to cause false information to be given to the NSW Police, and possibly ASIO, as to the existence of a bombing conspiracy involving the Croatian Six, in order to discredit Croatians in Australia. Mr Virkez’s information led to the arrest and charging of the Croatian Six and their eventual conviction for conspiracy to bomb and possession of explosives. The principal evidence relied upon to secure those convictions was the testimony of Mr Virkez and the evidence of police officers of confessions said to have been made by Croatian Six and explosives said to have been found at their premises. As I have explained, there is, in my view, a substantial doubt or question as to the veracity and reliability of Mr Virkez’s evidence and as to the police evidence. Mr Master’s interview with Mr Virkez and the information from Professor Schindler also indicated that the Croatian Six may not have been part of the alleged conspiracy to bomb. This and other material concerning the alleged finding of explosives at the premises of five of the Croatian Six also led me to conclude that there is a doubt or question about the convictions relating to the explosives offences. Furthermore, on Mr Bebic’s case, the explosives found had been stolen by Mr Virkez and were said by Mr Virkez to be for opal mining. Consequently, there appeared to me to be a doubt or question as to whether the Croatian Six were guilty of any the offences for which they were convicted.”

All six Croatian men vehemently and always denied they had made confessions NSW Police sought to attribute to them, Wright said, and four of the six alleged they had been severely beaten by police. They had always maintained their innocence of the crimes they were charged with and convicted for.

Justice Wright in his determination of 30 August acknowledges previous attempts to secure a judicial inquiry into the 1981 criminal convictions against the Croatian Six and says in paragraph 80 “While the previous applications were unsuccessful, it does not appear to me that they were entirely lacking in merit, although the present application is made considerably stronger than the earlier applications by the availability of the declassified ASIO documents and the further research and information contained in the publications and podcasts since 2012…”

We now patiently wait to receive the results of the judicial inquiry, which could take several months, but as Ellis Peters, The Potters Field, The 17^th Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, wrote: “It may well be, said Cadfael, that our justice sees as in a mirror image, left where right should be, evil reflected as good, good as evil, your angel as her devil. But God’s justice, if it makes no haste, makes no mistakes.” Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Anton Zvirotic, communist crimes, communist Yugoslavia Secret Service, Croatia, Croatian diaspora, Croatian Six, Ilija Kokotovic, Joseph Kokotovic, Judge VIctor Maxwell, Judicial Inquiry, Justice Robertson Wright, Maksimilian Bebic, Mile Nekic, NSW Supreme Court, Vico Virkez, Vitomir Misimovic, Vjekoslav Brajkovic

Croatian Six – Judicial Review May Stand Tall On The Horizon Soon (40 Years On)

August 19, 2022 by inavukic 3 Comments

It was a story that captured the attention of the entire Australian nation, indeed of the world and stunned with disbelief and grief the entire Australian Croatian community. In February of 1979 six Croatian men were arrested in Sydney and nearby Lithgow on suspected activities in terrorism, i.e., alleged plan to plant bombs around Sydney, including a major water supply to the city. In 1981 they were each sentenced to 15 years of prison and always maintained their innocence of these crimes. Judicial review of this case and associated criminal convictions had been unsuccessfully applied for several times since then. Finally, though, the matter of justice for Croatian Six appears to have taken a new turn in the positive direction and a judicial review may occur soon.

In its deliberations and response to the February 2021 Sydney barrister Sebastian De Brennan and solicitor Helen Cook’s application for a review on behalf of three of the Croatian Six – Vic Brajkovic, Maks Bebic and Mile Nekic – sentenced to prison in 1981 for a conspiracy to commit bombing terrorist act, the NSW Supreme Court has in July 2022 designated Justice Robertson Wright to decide whether a judicial review should be held into the convictions of the Croatian Six indictments that are more and more appearing as trumped-up charges with planted evidence as a result of individual ASIO officers clandestine collaboration with communist Yugoslavia UDBa. The Croatian Case has frequently during the past decades been labelled as the greatest miscarriage of justice in the entire Australian history.

Justice Wright is likely to make his decision soon after examining De Brennan’s argument for a review and the NSW Crown Solicitor’s Office argument against a review. Among other material there are more than 5,000 pages of the court transcript from the dawn of the 1980’s which are filled with details demanding duly close attention.

Still, this provides the best hope ever that the Croatian Six may indeed soon come out of the dark tunnel of injustice and false accusations and receive the justice they deserve.

Soon after the 2019 publishing of Sydney based Hamish McDonald’s book on the Croatian Six case, “Reasonable Doubt: Spies, Police and the Croatian Six”, barrister Sebastian De Brennan and solicitor Helen Cook, with opinion from David Buchanan SC began working pro bono on a new application to the NSW chief justice.

To remind of the case things went down with the following events. In February of 1979 Vico Virkez, a man from former Yugoslavia, walked into the police station in the mining town of Lithgow and declared to the police that he was part of a Croatian conspiracy to plant bombs around Sydney that night. He was told to go home and not say anything to anyone about what he had said to the police. Later, writes Hamish McDonald, police arrived from Sydney, arrested him and his tenant Maks Bebic, and discovered crude gelignite bombs in Virkez’s old Valiant car. With names supplied by Virkez, police also raided three homes around Sydney, in each of which they found two half-sticks of gelignite in the possession of a total of five other Croatian Australians, Joe and Ilija Kokotovic, Anton Zvirotic, Vjekoslav “Vic” Brajkovic and Mile Nekic. Taken to the old Central Investigation Branch at the back of Central Court, the five confessed to the bomb plot, as had Bebic in Lithgow.

That was the police version, anyway, and along with Virkez’s account it was enough for a jury to convict the six men of conspiracy in a terror-bombing plan, and for Justice Victor Maxwell to sentence each of them to fifteen years’ jail in early 1981. Those decisions were upheld on appeal the following year. All served their time with maximum remissions for good behaviour and were out of prison by the end of the 1980s. Their jailing didn’t improve the Croatian community’s already blackened image at which Yugoslav communists, led by Serbs, worked very hard to achieve with lies and fabrications, writes McDonald.

Virkez, the informer, returned back to Yugoslavia soon after giving his statement evidence in Sydney court, and, given the case attracted a great deal of public interest in Australia, ABC Four Corners reporter Chris Masters travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina and tracked him down in 1991. There, on camera, Virkez revealed that he was a Serb (not a Croat as he told the police in Australia), Vitomir Misimovic. He stated unequivocally that his evidence of the bomb plot against the Croatian Six had been false, that he had been coached in what to say in court by NSW police.

The Six Croats, Max Bebic, Vic Brajkovic, Tony Zvirotic, brothers Joe Kokotovic and Ilija Kokotovic and Mile Nekic were released from prison early, after serving a total of about 10 years with custody pre and during trial counted around the time of Chris Master’s investigations that early on pointed to possible interference with justice and on account of their good behaviour.

After the interview with Virkez featured on the ABC’s Four Corners, two defence lawyers from the original trial, David Buchanan and Ian McClintock, applied to the NSW attorney-general for the convictions to be reviewed. Three years after the broadcast, attorney-general John Hannaford (1992-1995) decided against a review on the advice of two senior state government lawyers, Keith Mason and Rod Howie — advice still not public because of claimed legal privilege.

In 2012, Australian Commonwealth Attorney General Nicola Roxon refused to meet with a group of Australian Croats, known as Justice4Six, who had repeatedly asked her to launch an investigation into the knowledge and actions of the Australian Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Commonwealth Police related to the Croatian Six case. Her department responded that it would be “inappropriate” for the Attorney-General’s office to conduct a separate investigation, as an application for a review of the conviction was before the New South Wales Supreme Court from 1982.

The Australian Justice4Six group made the request for an investigation after an investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald, headed by Hamish McDonald, produced new material, which pointed to the truth of the claims that the whole thing was set up by the UDBA, the former Yugoslav intelligence service, then that information about UDBA’s involvement in the whole case had been covered up. New material that would indicate a need to review the convictions against the Croatian Six also emerged at this time, as noted by McDonald, from scholars like John Schindler of the US Naval War College about the murderous war waged on the Croatian diaspora by Yugoslavia’s security service, the UDBa, and Virkez’s withdrawal of evidence.

David Buchanan, joined by a younger lawyer, Sebastian De Brennan, put a fresh application for a judicial review to NSW chief justice Tom Bathurst, appointed after the Coalition had taken government in New South Wales the previous year. Bathurst asked an acting justice, Graham Barr, to assess whether a review was warranted. His assessment, relying on police evidence, saw no cause to prod into convictions.

In November 2016, though, another opening emerged. Military historians John Blaxland and Rhys Crawley published the third volume of the Official History of ASIO, covering 1975–89, the final years of the cold war. In a book vetted by the organisation and based on free access to its archives, they wrote that Virkez had been working as an informant to a suspected UDBa officer in the Yugoslavian consulate-general in Sydney, that ASIO regarded many of the alleged Croatian bombings as “false-flag” operations by the UDBa, and that ASIO had failed to note the seriousness of Yugoslav intelligence activity here. The result, they concluded, was the “wrongful conviction” of the Croatian Six, wrote Hamish McDonald.

In January 2018, certain files from the Commonwealth of Australia National Archives had been opened for the public including files on Vico Virkez. They show that he had been working with a communist Yugoslavia UDBa handler in the Yugoslav Sydney consulate for six months before the arrests.

After the arrests in 1979, ASIO quickly concluded Virkez was the man working with the UDBa officer and circulated this information around state police forces through an intelligence channel. The reaction at NSW police headquarters was dismay. Assistant commissioner Roy Whitelaw contacted ASIO to say that if the men’s defence team became aware of this information, “it could blow a hole right through the police case,” writes Hamish McDonald and continues: Under its chief at the time, Harvey Barnett, ASIO tried to tone down its assessment of Virkez from “agent” to mere “informant.” Barnett wrote in the file that this reduced the likelihood of ASIO’s being accused of having been party to a miscarriage of justice. Bob Hawke government’s attorneys-general, Gareth Evans and Lionel Bowen, then signed off on moves to prevent Ian Cunliffe, by then secretary of the Australian Law Reform Commission, from raising his misgivings regarding the suppression of evidence about Virkez, writes Hamish McDonald and continues:

As Whitelaw correctly saw, this blew a big hole in the case against the Croatian Six — not just the information itself but the act of hiding it. As the counsel for the NSW Crown, Reg Blanch QC, admitted in 1986, during the brief and forlorn attempt by the Croatian Six to appeal to the High Court, it was “almost automatic” that a miscarriage of justice would be created by failure to convey relevant evidence to the defence.

This cover-up was detailed in Hamish McDonald’s book on the affair, Reasonable Doubt: Spies, Police and the Croatian Six. Soon after its 2019 publishing, barrister Sebastian De Brennan and solicitor Helen Cook, with opinion from David Buchanan SC — began working pro bono on a new application to the NSW chief justice. This application is the basis upon which NSW Supreme Court has now, last month, given Justice Robertson Wright the task of advising the relevant authorities as to whether a judicial review on the Croatian Six case should be pursued. Finally, a glimpse of real hope for justice. Ina Vukic