The fluke discovery of a man tried and imprisoned in secret has prompted a call for Government to revisit reform of secrecy law, almost 10 years since the last major investigation occurred.

Key points: A man was tried and imprisoned in secret, but his plight only became widely known when a Canberra author reported on a peripheral court case

A man was tried and imprisoned in secret, but his plight only became widely known when a Canberra author reported on a peripheral court case The revelation has shocked the legal community, which is calling for a reform of secrecy laws

The revelation has shocked the legal community, which is calling for a reform of secrecy laws The last major inquiry into secrecy powers was released 10 years ago in March

An ACT court judgment handed down earlier this month concerning the treatment of a man in prison obliquely revealed he had been tried and imprisoned in secret.

Law Council of Australia president Arthur Moses SC said open justice was one of the fundamental attributes of a fair trial.

"The Law Council believes a thorough review of all existing secrecy offences across federal legislation should be conducted," he said.

Mr Moses said any review should expand on the work undertaken by the Australian Law Reform Commission for its report, Secrecy Laws and Open Government in Australia.

March next year represents the 10-year anniversary of that report, the result of a 15-month inquiry that identified 506 secrecy provisions in 176 pieces of Commonwealth legislation, including 358 criminal secrecy offences.

"Secrecy or suppression is only ever appropriate where the rare exceptions to open justice have been appropriately considered and applied," Mr Moses said.

Canberra trial conducted in secret

The man's imprisonment was only revealed this month when Canberra author Robert Macklin wrote about the second court case — separate to the initial matter — concerning the prisoner's treatment once he arrived in prison.

Mr Macklin had become familiar with the matter when contacted by the man's brother, who asked to him to provide writing assistance to the prisoner.

"What concerns me is that the court case was conducted in secrecy, he was sentenced in secret, he was jailed in secret," he told RN Breakfast.

"This didn't seem to me to be the Australian way."

Jon Stanhope, former ACT chief minister, said this sort of behaviour was carried out by totalitarian regimes.

"It's not something we would be surprised about if we heard it was coming from North Korea or Saudi Arabia or Iran perhaps. But in the context of Australia and a Western democracy, it does surprise me."

Former New South Wales Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy said it was difficult to debate the case given the secrecy around it.

"At first blush, this looks like the complete abandonment of open justice," Mr Whealy told Guardian Australia.

"Are we now a totalitarian state where people are prosecuted, convicted and shunted off to prison without they or the public having any notion as to what has happened?"

In 2010, the Law Reform Commission recommended the repeal of the wide secrecy provisions such as sections 70 and 79 of the Crimes Act, and the introduction of a new general secrecy offence limited to disclosures that harm essential public interests.

Sections 70 and 79 were repealed last year, but were replaced by parts of the Criminal Code that some argue have an even wider application.

The man whose plight has prompted such concern has been released from prison.

Mr Macklin said he was "OK" and on "a driving holiday".