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Seven sues AFP over raid

Seven West Media has launched legal action against the Australian Federal Police following raids on its Sydney offices.

AFP-RAID-Seven West Media has launched legal action against the Australian Federal Police following raids on its Sydney offices last week.

The company lodged documents in the Federal Court’s Sydney registry following the raid, which saw armed agents storm the Seven Network offices and its related magazine New Idea for information on a rumoured deal with convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby.

The company had threatened legal action if it did not receive an apology. The AFP later apologised for suggesting a Seven lawyer was suspected of having committing an offence.

Speaking at a Senate hearing this week, AFP Assistant Commissioner Michael Phelan defended the raids.

“Over a quarter of a million of dollars went offshore and was lost to the jurisdiction,” he said.

The officers said they were still waiting to find out exactly what information is in the documents they seized.

They insisted a mistake on a document related to the raid had not affected the AFP’s right to carry out the operation.

AFP said Seven’s payment of Corby’s luxury villa was enough to give the impression a deal was close.

Asked whether this also applied to the TEN and Nine networks, Phelan replied: “Those networks didn’t have one of their major presenters sitting in the same villa.”

A hearing date is yet to be set in the Federal Court.

Source: NineMSN, ABC

11 Responses

  1. Regardless of what Seven think, all the police need to have the right to search is suspicion of a crime, and they definitely had that. All other factors are irrelevant. Seven will lose this.

  2. Following the money…
    The Budget: Federal Govt -> AFP
    Seven wins: AFP -> Seven West
    Corby I/V: Seven West -> Corby
    Proceeds of Crime: Corby -> Federal Govt
    … and the circle is complete.

  3. The AFP apologised only for inferring that a Seven lawyer had committed an offence. They have not apologised for the raids avec guns, squad cars and hoopla, nor for taking that action using a suspect warrant. Hence legal action ensues.

  4. Generally, Courts won’t allow the police to be sued, if there are reasonable grounds for the actions of police.

    This is done for policy reasons, because it would open the floodgates for litigation and affect the way that police carry out their work, if they constantly fear being sued.

  5. The AFP did not apologise, haven’t admitted they were wrong and are still lying. Which is why Seven has challenged the warrants in court.

    Their claims will be tested in court and they will decide, not the AFP.

  6. The difference being, MattJ, that a photographer staying at the villa wouldn’t have the funding of Channel Seven, and be essentially advertising the fact that an interview was imminent. In fairness, there was more than enough evidence for a judge to grant a warrant. Based on that, I’m not quite sure how Seven expects to win a suit…

  7. Seven gets their apology from the AFP but they are still taking legal action. If I were Seven I would be letting it go, especially as they are apparently still seeking to a deal with Corby – from what Mike Willesee said last week.

  8. I believe anyone would be able to stay at the same villa, let alone hotel. Unless Villa is define connecting room to her rooms or they could have stayed in the same compound. Being a photographer, could I have been investigated by the feds if I stayed in the same hotel???

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