Sydney, Mar 09: Iraqi diplomats today challenged Australia to prove one of its diplomats was a spy, as the man at the center of the row protested his innocence. Helal Ibrahim Aaref has been given until Wednesday to leave Australia. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday the Australian security and intelligence organisation had found that Aaref, who has been in Australia four months, was working as an Iraqi intelligence officer. Downer said the government believed Aaref, who is in his 40s, was associated with Iraq's feared secret police, the Mukhabarat.
But Aaref today said he was innocent of espionage.
The embassy's Charge d'Affaires, Saad Al-Samarai, demanded the Australian government produce proof and charged that Australia had been prompted by the US to expel Aaref in the lead up to war.
Bureau Report