Witness J

Witness J, also known by the pseudonyms Alan Johns and Prisoner 123458, was a former Australian intelligence officer who was subject to a secret trial and secret imprisonment in 2018, for supposedly breaching Australian national security laws. His case came to light following an Australian Federal Police raid of his jail cell seeking a memoir that he had previously received official permission to write about his experiences, which led to him bringing a claim for breach of his human rights.
The case sparked debate in the media about the unprecedented secrecy of the proceedings and its violation of the open justice principle underpinning Australia's legal system. The Australian Capital Territory's Justice Minister Shane Rattenbury was unaware of the secret prisoner until learning about him through the media, even though Prisoner J had been held in the Territory's Alexander Maconochie Centre over which Rattenbury had ministerial oversight. The use of a wholly closed criminal trial in the matter was described as "unprecedented" by the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor, with the possible exception of trials during World War I or World War II.