Muslims vow legal action after protest prayers clash
Alex Mitchell, Tom Wark and Kat Wong |
A group of praying Muslim men who were ripped from their knees by police have vowed to take legal action, as an expert maintains the importance of police de-escalation.
Sheikh Wesam Charkawi was leading prayers during a protest against Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s Australian visit on Monday night when the demonstration descended into chaos.
Officers were seen beating and pepper spraying protesters while a group of police began shoving the prayer group, picking up its members and flinging them away.
Some reported feeling traumatised by the interaction and one of the women came away with badly bruised knees after being thrown by officers.
Mr Charkawi on Wednesday confirmed the group would take action.
“We are absolutely seeking legal action and will not relent on this most serious matter,” he told AAP in a statement.
Deakin University police accountability expert Emma Ryan believes the justice system could respond in their favour.
“Police need to have used force proportionate to the threat being faced,” she told AAP.
“Given there was absolutely no threat from those men down on their knees saying a prayer, I think they’d have a pretty good chance.”
Excessive force can often be hard to measure as it can be difficult to determine what counts as the right amount or too much force, she said.
Police reportedly told the Daily Telegraph one of the protesters who was violently arrested on Monday had bitten an officer’s thumb.
But even in cases such as these, police have an extra responsibility to de-escalate, according to Dr Ryan.
“If someone bites you, bashing into them is probably not the response that courts would want,” she said.
“What are you doing to the protesters to cause them to bite you – that would be the question I would ask if I was a defence attorney.”
Premier Chris Minns has repeatedly defended police, saying they faced incredibly difficult circumstances.
But Islamophobia special envoy Aftab Malik said he was brought to tears when the premier failed to call out TV interview questions suggesting the men had been “baiting” police when praying.
“This is part of the normalisation in which day-by-day Muslims are being degraded … it’s the ordinariness of Islamophobia destroying the dignity of Muslims who are legitimate citizens like anybody else,” he told the Senate on Tuesday night
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said he had apologised to senior members of the Muslim community for any offence caused.
But he also continued to defend the actions of police, who were instructed to clear protesters from the area surrounding Sydney Town Hall.
A subsequent protest against police violence on Tuesday night resulted in the arrest of teenager Duke Austin, who was charged with assault and held in custody overnight after he allegedly repeatedly shone a torch in the face of an officer.
But the strength of the police case was questioned by Austin’s lawyer and the magistrate in a bail court on Wednesday morning.
“There is a legitimate argument whether the flashing of a torch at a police officer is enough to make out an assault,” solicitor Wilson Tighe argued.
Police opposed the 18-year-old being released on bail in part because of the possible damage to the officer depending on “how powerful the light was”.
But magistrate Daniel Covington said the evidence against Austin was hardly overwhelming.
“To be fairly blunt, on these facts there is no real possibility of a term of imprisonment even if he was convicted,” he said.
Officers arrested 27 people on Monday and later charged nine with offences including behaving in an offensive manner in a public place and resisting police.
Five members of the public were taken to hospital.
AAP
