All Charges Dropped Against Former Greens Candidate Hannah Thomas

Hannah Thomas, who was injured and arrested at a pro-Palestine protest in June, has had all charges against her dropped this morning, and will sue the NSW Police for their actions.

The 35-year-old was one of five protesters arrested at an early morning pro-Palestine protest in June at SEC Plating in Belmore, with her lawyers alleging she was punched in the face by a NSW police officer.

Subsequently, Thomas was taken to hospital where she required emergency surgery. She has since undergone another round of surgery, and may permanently lose vision in her right eye.

Speaking to reporters outside of Bankstown local court this morning, Thomas’s solicitor, Peter O’Brien said his team would be filing civil proceedings against the state of NSW in the supreme court, alleging NSW police pursued a malicious prosecution, and that Thomas was the victim of assault and battery by police, abuse of process and malfeasance in office.

“The charges were clearly unsustainable from the very beginning, and as a result, they’ve now been … withdrawn. And that should have happened probably a long time ago,” he said.

“We expect the police officer, a police officer, will be charged. Others should certainly be disciplined.”

The former Greens candidate was charged with resisting police, failure to comply with a move-on direction, and refusing or failing to comply with a direction to disperse, all of which she pleaded not guilty to.

Arrest reports showed she had been charged using an emergency anti-riot power introduced in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots, which requires authorisation from senior police.

This charge was eventually dropped, replaced with an  additional charge of refusing or failing to comply with a direction.

Charges remain for four other protesters

Thomas said that although she was relieved charges had been dropped, it was not a reflection of justice served.

“Four other protesters from the SE plating action that morning are still facing unfair charges that should never have been brought,” she said. “They deserve justice as well.”

 

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She also emphasised that none of the police involved in the early morning incident in June had been “held to account for their behaviour”.

“The punch I sustained was just one example of police brutality that morning. The actions of every cop at that protest should be reviewed.

“It took the police two days to charge me, but 73 days later, the male police officer who punched me in the head with enough force to rip open my right eyeball has not been charged, and to the best of my knowledge, he remains in uniform prowling the streets of western Sydney.

“If he was willing to punch me in the face in front of so many witnesses and with people filming, I shudder to think what he is doing when no one’s watching.”

Speaking to ABC radio the day after Thomas’ arrest, assistant commissioner Brett McFadden said body-worn video provided “no information at this stage that’s before me that indicates any misconduct on behalf of my officers”.

Speaking to CityHub in July, Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice Sue Higginson said the violence was representative of wider issues with the anti-protest laws introduced by Premier Chris Minns in recent years.

“Police just should not have powers to that extent where they collide with the ultimate right of the freedom to express political communication, including the right to assemble and protest on public land,” she said. “They believed, and they acted, on the basis that they could just bust up a peaceful protest, that they could issue a move on order, and then they could start exerting excessive force.

“If we just look at this one incident and treat it like an isolated incident… this will happen again, and it will happen again, and it will happen again.”

Thomas said protests like those outside of SEC Plating would continue as long as the ““Albanese government maintains the two-way arms trade” with Israel.

“Weapons are still being made in suburbs across this country,” she said. “Weapons that are used by the state of Israel to kill kids in Gaza every single day for more than 700 days.”