Wounded ex-Greens hopeful slams ‘ludicrous’ rally case
Miklos Bolza and Alex Mitchell |
A former Greens candidate should not be the one facing charges over a protest where police allegedly caused serious injury to her eye, her lawyer says.
Hannah Thomas, 35, was charged with hindering or resisting police and two counts of refusing to comply with a move-on direction during the allegedly unauthorised protest at SEC Plating in Sydney’s southwest on June 27.
Her lawyer, Stewart O’Connell, entered pleas of not guilty to the charges during a brief hearing at Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday.
Thomas, who ran against the prime minister in the seat of Grayndler at the May federal election, did not appear in court.
The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions has taken over the case from police, solicitor Chris Allison confirmed during the hearing.
The 35-year-old activist and lawyer was among five people arrested during the protest.
They were rallying outside an Australian firm reportedly linked to the manufacture of components for US fighter jets used by the Israeli Defence Forces, something the company has denied.
The arrests are subject to an internal NSW Police review, with external oversight by the police watchdog, after Thomas suffered an eye injury requiring surgery.
Outside court, Mr O’Connell described the alleged assault on his client – which was captured on police bodyworn video – as “brutal, cowardly and despicable”.
“Every minute these charges persist is another minute of injustice,” he said.
“Not only should these charges be withdrawn but serious consideration should be given to charging someone for the brutal, cowardly and despicable assault on Hannah Thomas.”
The other four protesters – Zachary Schofield, 26, Shane Reside, 41, Brandon Eid, 24, and Holly Zhang, 29 – all pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to various charges relating to the protest and their arrests.
Mr O’Connell called the charges against all five individuals “ludicrous”.
He earlier told the court police gave unlawful directions to move on to the protesters.
Zhang and Schofield have both been accused of refusing or failing to comply with a police direction, while Schofield faces a further charge of hindering or resisting police.
Eid has been charged with larceny and goods in custody suspected to be stolen, while Reside was hit with a single count of using offensive language in a public place.
On Tuesday, Schofield managed to vary his bail conditions to allow him to attend other protests while his court case was ongoing.
The move was opposed by police prosecutors.
But the magistrate ruled Schofield would have to obey the law at future protests because of a separate bail condition requiring him to be of good behaviour.
A bid to remove the 26-year-old’s bail conditions entirely was rejected.
A civil suit on behalf of Thomas against the state has also been flagged over a number of allegations, including assault and battery, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, misfeasance in public office and collateral abuse of process.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden previously said he did not observe any misconduct in the body-worn camera footage of the incident.
The officers involved remain on duty.
Protesters returned to SEC Plating on Friday evening for another rally, where a statement from Ms Thomas was read out.
“We owe it to Palestinians to escalate, to keep targeting companies like SEC Plating, which play a role in the F-35 global supply chain and enable genocide against the Palestinian people,” she said.
AAP
