VIC: Father of accused spy plans to stay home

AAP General News (Australia)
08-26-1999
VIC: Father of accused spy plans to stay home

MELBOURNE, Aug 26 AAP - The devastated father of an Australian accused of trying to sell
hundreds of secret US documents to a foreign country will not be heading to the United States
when his son goes to trial in November.

Jean-Philippe Wispelaere, who worked for the Australian Defence Intelligence Organisation,
was arrested in the US in May on a charge of attempted espionage after allegedly trying to
sell more than 700 classified US documents to an FBI undercover agent.

He believed he was selling the documents to an intelligence officer of a foreign country.

Wispelaere's trial has been pushed back to November 8 from the original date of September
13 after fresh espionage charges were levelled against him.

The 28-year-old's father, Claude, who lives in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick
East, said he was devastated by his son's predicament.

But when asked if he would go to the US for his son's trial, Claude said: "I don't think it
will help my son".

"I think my son needs all his wits with him and maybe seeing me very devastated will not
help him because I'm not a believer in having a stiff upper lip.

"If I am upset I will show it," he told AAP.

Claude said he had lost a lot of weight worrying about his son.

"It is not funny to be in total darkness - you suspect things and you have no evidence of
anything, it's so murky.

"I feel like I'm up murky creek without a paddle," he said.

He has not been able to speak to his son since he was jailed after being arrested at Dulles
International Airport in Virginia, near Washington, but his son's attorney had informed him of
the change in trial dates, he said.

A grand jury in mid-July returned an indictment against Wispelaere that added two
additional charges - actual espionage and another count of attempted espionage - on top of the
original attempted espionage charge.

AAP st/ra/it/br

KEYWORD: US SPY FATHER

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