Israeli diplomat sent home by Australia had been in NZ

The Israeli diplomat secretly ordered to leave Australia is Amir Lati, a second secretary with the Israeli Embassy in Canberra who visited New Zealand in connection with the Mossad passport fraud case.

A journalist based in Israel told the Herald last night that Lati was a reasonably young and experienced diplomat.

He abruptly left Canberra a month ago after the Australian Government told Israel that if he did not leave he would face deportation.

Speculation was that he could be a Mossad agent and connected to the passport fraud scandal, or that he had done something in his personal life to make Australian authorities take such action.

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry was investigating the matter and if they did not find anything, Lati would be given a new position.

Lati had said through the Israeli reporter that the Australian Government would not explain why he had to leave.

He is just waiting for it all "to be over".

He told the reporter he had done nothing wrong in his personal life and that he did not know why he was deported.

"Maybe they were not satisfied with something I did in my duty, but I did not do anything in my personal life," the reporter told the Herald.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff confirmed that Lati came here in his official capacity to visit the Mossad spies Uriel Kelman and Eli Cara while they were in Mt Eden Prison serving a six-month jail term for attempting to obtain a New Zealand passport.

New Zealand would not ask for a report on the matter, said Mr Goff. If it related to New Zealand, Australian officials would have advised Wellington of that.

Terence O'Brien, a former New Zealand Ambassador to the United Nations, said it was very unusual for a government not to offer any comment on such a matter.

"It must have been a fairly serious misdemeanour that this man has committed," said Mr O'Brien, now a senior fellow at Victoria University's Centre of Strategic Studies.

"He may himself be a Mossad agent and has done something the Australians find unacceptable.

"I am surprised they haven't said what he has done. They could have at least given some indication and if it was that [he was a Mossad agent] you would have thought that they would say so."

According to reports in Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade summoned a senior embassy official and requested the immediate recall of the diplomat or steps would be taken to declare him persona non grata and start deportation proceedings.

Israel's Foreign Ministry instructed Lati to head home immediately. An official said the expulsion of the "professional and devoted worker" was a "complete mystery".

When the Herald contacted the Israeli Embassy in Canberra yesterday a staff member said Lati had returned to Israel and would not be back. The latest disclosure comes after it was revealed last year that alleged spy Eli Cara crossed the Tasman 24 times while running a dummy Sydney-based travel company.

New Zealand passports are in high demand throughout the world because they are normally accepted without a visa.

New Zealand has demanded an apology from Israel over the passport affair but is yet to receive one. Israel has denied any involvement.

Mr O'Brien said one of the reasons the Australian Government was keeping quiet about the matter might be connected to its close relationship with the United States and Israel.

The Australian Labor Opposition moved quickly to accuse the Government of a cover-up and said Opposition leader Kim Beazley should have been briefed.

Opposition parties in New Zealand have called on Prime Minister Helen Clark to investigate the matter further.

National spokesman Lockwood Smith said the Government had to find out what was going on.

Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke said it was important to know if the Israelis' attempt to obtain New Zealand passports was run out of Canberra.

The Mossad Case

* March: Two suspected Israeli spies arrested in Auckland.

* July: Convicted of one count of passport fraud.

* September: Freed from prison and kicked out of New Zealand.

* Now: An Israeli diplomat who visited them has been expelled by Australia for unspecified actions.