An Afghan man has successfully forced an ASIO chief - David Irvine - to testify for the first time in court in a bid to overturn a secret security assessment linking him to people smuggling.
The court appearance comes after Sayed Akbar Jaffarie, 34, had his spouse visa cancelled last year after ASIO found he posed an unacceptable risk to national security.
The details of the ASIO adverse security assessment remain secret but centre on allegations Mr Jaffarie was involved in people smuggling. He has not been charged with any criminal offence and has lived in Australia since 2008, before being taken into immigration detention in June.
Mr Jaffarie's lawyer, Stephen Blanks, said his client denies any involvement in people smuggling and is seeking to have the adverse assessment declared invalid.
The case also rests on a challenge to the interpretation of ''serious threat'' to border security under the ASIO act.
Under cross examination by Mr Jaffarie's barrister, Shane Prince, Mr Irvine said ASIO had intelligence that linked Mr Jaffarie to an extensive people-smuggling syndicate based in Indonesia.
The syndicate was allegedly headed by an Indonesia-based Afghan man, Sayed Abbas, whom the Australian government unsuccessfully sought last year to extradite for trial. According to an unclassified summary of the ASIO assessment, Mr Jaffarie helped find Afghan citizens for the syndicate using his contacts in the Hazara community in Australia.
Mr Prince asked Mr Irvine if he considered waiting until Mr Abbas could be extradited and tried before making the adverse assessment against Mr Jaffarie.
Mr Irvine said he did not because he relied on intelligence collected and analysed by his officers.
That included an interview with ASIO officers in which Mr Jaffarie allegedly lied about his links with Mr Abbas. Mr Prince suggested if this occurred, this may have been inadvertent because Mr Jaffarie knew Mr Abbas by another name.
Mr Jaffarie is currently held in the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. He attended court accompanied by three Serco officers and his wife Tahira Mossavi.
A judgment will be handed down at a later date.
