Australian Federal Police are seeking original court documents in the case of an Egyptian man who Interpol flagged as a convicted terrorist.

Sayed Abdellatif and his family arrived in Australia seeking asylum in May 2012.

He was moved from the low-security Inverbrackie detention centre in the Adelaide Hills to a secure facility in Sydney after authorities learned he was subject to an Interpol “red notice” – essentially a wanted poster.

Police told a Senate committee in May the notice said Abdellatif was convicted in 1999 for membership of a terrorist organisation and involvement in terrorist activities in Egypt and outside that country.

But new reports have cast doubts on that.

Abdellatif’s lawyers have told media their client wasn’t accused or convicted of murder or bomb making, and was only accused of joining a secret organisation and being party to a criminal agreement.

“We’ve gone back to the court where the documents would be, the original documents, and we can rely upon the content of those to test this at its source,” AFP deputy commissioner Peter Drennan told ABC radio today.

Police expected to get clarification from the court within days.

Drennan said police had rechecked the Interpol red notice earlier in the year and were advised it was still current.

“Law enforcement agencies around the world rely heavily on the Interpol red notices and put in good faith the accuracy and the content of them,” he said.

Drennan said he had never come across one that was inaccurate before.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the case showed there was a clear link between Australia’s border security and national security.

“It’s clear that the AFP knew about this man being on the Interpol list in November of last year,” he told reporters at Nowra, on the NSW south coast.

“And ASIO knew that this man was on the Interpol list in August of last year.

“But it seems that no one really wanted to tell the government about this.”