CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A Chinese-born adviser to an Australian lawmaker has launched a constitutional challenge in Australia’s highest court against laws banning covert foreign interference in domestic politics.

John Shi Sheng Zhang is also challenging in the High Court the validity of search warrants executed by police at his Sydney home and offices in June as part of an investigation into illegal foreign interference, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Zhang is an adviser to New South Wales state lawmaker Shaoquett Moselmane, whose membership of the opposition Labor Party was suspended after police raids on Moselmane and Zhang’s homes and business addresses in June.

The raids were the first police investigation to grab public attention since the foreign interference laws came into force in 2018 and the government bolstered funding to security agencies late last year to enforce them.

The laws angered China and stoked increasing tensions between the nations.

In Zhang’s court documents, filed in August, he said he was accused of acting with others on behalf of the “Chinese state and party apparatus” in a “private social media chat group and other fora” with Moselane to “advance the interests and the policy goals of a foreign principal, being the Chinese government.”

Zhang, an Australian citizen who immigrated from China in 1989, is also accused of “providing support and encouragement” to Moselmane for the “advocacy of Chinese state interests.

It is also alleged that Zhang and others “concealed from or failed to disclose” to Moselmane that they were working with Chinese state and Communist party apparatus including the Ministry of State Security and the United Front Work Department.

The case will likely be listed for its first preliminary hearing before a judge within weeks.

Police have confirmed that search warrants were executed in Sydney in June, but have yet to give details about how many or who was targeted.

During the June raids Australian police accessed the communications of Chinese diplomats and named a Chinese consular official in a warrant, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported on Wednesday.

ABC reported it has seen search warrants used in June that revealed police were investigating whether China’s consulate in Sydney conspired with Zhang in a plot to infiltrate the Labor Party and influence voters.

The warrants name Sydney Consul Sun Yantao, ABC reported.

The Chinese consulate told ABC in a statement that allegations it “engaged in infiltration activities are totally baseless and nothing but vicious slanders.”

“The Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney is committed to promoting friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation in various fields between the Chinese side and New South Wales,” the statement said.

“It always observes international law and basic norms of international relations while exercising duties in Australia,” it added.

The Chinese Embassy in Canberra did not immediately respond to request for comment on Wednesday.

Australian Federal Police said in a statement that “as the investigation remains ongoing, it is not appropriate to make any comment.”

China’s foreign ministry announced last week that Australian agents had raided the homes of four journalists working for Chinese state media in anti-foreign interference investigations and seized their electronics. The four had since returned to China.

The revelation came a day after the last two Australian journalists working for Australian media in China left the country for fear of detention and the Chinese foreign ministry announced that an Australian citizen working as a Chinese state media journalist had been detained on suspicion of national security crimes.