Immigration fails to explain delay over 'terrorist' The Immigration Department is refusing to explain a three-month gap between police revealing an asylum-seeker had terrorist convictions and the department acting. The department says police confirmed the man had a criminal past - said to include serious terrorism offences in Egypt - only in February. It says it moved the man to a more secure facility in April. The Australian Federal Police told a Senate estimates hearing last week it concluded the man had been convicted of terrorism offences on November 14 last year - and told the Immigration Department immediately. It is an offence to give false information to a Senate hearing. The man, Sayed Ahmed Maksoud Abdellatif, was convicted in Egypt in 1999 of terrorism offences including membership of the Al Qaeda-linked group Egyptian Islamic Jihad and premediated murder, according to the AFP and ASIO. A spokeswoman for the Immigration Department said yesterday, ""We stand by the statement we gave last week."" Spy agency ASIO told the same Senate hearing that it had told the Immigration Department on August 30 of the man's background. The department has made no response to that testimony. A spokeswoman for the AFP said: ""Additional enquiries should be directed to (the department). Meanwhile the Coalition's controversial policy of returning asylum-seeker boats to Indonesia came under further scrutiny yesterday. Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop branded ""a beat-up"" a report that cited her saying senior Indonesian officials had privately indicated they would co-operate with the Coalition on the policy. On Friday, Indonesian Ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema said ""no such collaboration will happen"." But Ms Bishop was quoted by the Guardian Australia as saying: ""Professional diplomats are paid to present particular views but what goes on behind the scenes can be quite different - what people say privately can be different to what they say publicly."" Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa avoided commenting directly on the Opposition's policy of turning back the boats. He told Fairfax Media: "I heard, I'm aware (of the Coalition policy). I observed, and I am not going to add anything to that. Refugee advocate Ian Rintoul meanwhile produced translated Egyptian court documents that appeared to show that Abdellatif had not been convicted of premediated murder or possession of explosives as the AFP had stated. Rather, he had been charged with being a leader and a member of a jihadist group, and of participating in a ""criminal agreement"." The charge of being a leader had been dismissed in 1999 and the criminal agreement overturned on appeal in 2001. The charge of membership of a jihadist group was still being appealed, Mr Rintoul said. The veracity and completeness of those documents could not be independently verified.