Firm demands apology for comments about protest arrest

Thomas was one of five people arrested outside SEC Planting in Belmore, a company the protestors claimed had supplied parts used in the manufacturer of F-35 jets, which are flown by the Israel Defence Forces. SEC Planting has denied this allegation.

In subsequent media reports, Burke said that “no one’s above the law”.

Thomas alleged that Burke and Sky News “chose to victim-blame me”.

“Minister Burke and Sky News suggested that people who exercise their fundamental right to protest, may well end up brutalised by police and that this is acceptable. It’s a sinister message that risks emboldening further police violence,” Thomas said.

In her statement, Thomas added Burke’s media comments were particularly “jarring” because the Australian government and Sky News “have not turned the same blowtorch on the numerous breaches of international law committed by the state of Israel”.

Stewart O’Connell, senior defamation solicitor at O’Brien Criminal & Civil Solicitors, said Sky News and Burke have allegedly disregarded a fundamental principle that “people are innocent until proven guilty”.

VIEW ALL

“The timing of these politically driven comments and stories is reprehensible, given that Thomas was still in hospital receiving medical treatment for a significant injury.

“The story has directly contributed to hateful, demeaning and racist comments about Thomas online. These kinds of presumptive, premature and poorly considered political comments and journalism need to be held to account,” O’Connell said.

The firm is representing Thomas in relation to the criminal charges but has also flagged that it would investigate the viability of civil proceedings, having alleged there was a “fundamental misunderstanding as to the extent of the police’s powers to give directions leading up to the arrests which ensued”.

Thomas suffered serious eye injuries during her arrest and said she was facing potential permanent loss of vision.

The injury was severe enough to warrant it being declared a critical incident, and police have been required to investigate it.

“In a democratic society, no individual should suffer injury at the hands of law enforcement merely for exercising their lawful right to protest. What has happened to Thomas is deeply concerning and should never have occurred,” principal solicitor Peter O’Brien said.

Referring to recent law changes, which have attempted to expand police powers to give directions – now subject to constitutional challenge – O’Brien said police may have felt “emboldened” to act without proper and lawful acknowledgement of the right to protest.

“The government was warned that these changes to expand police powers to disperse protestors could lead to serious and ugly confrontations. This is precisely the type of harm we cautioned to the court and to the public,” O’Brien said.

The Human Rights Law Centre has called on the Minns government to repeal its “draconian anti-protest laws”.

The centre’s senior lawyer, David Mejia-Canales, said the laws have set the tone for “heavy-handed policing”, with Thomas’ recent arrest an example of the “dangerous consequences of expanded police powers”.

“NSW has some of the most restrictive, anti-democratic and repressive anti-protest laws in the country,” Mejia-Canales said.

“These laws must be repealed urgently, and our right to protest and hold governments and corporations accountable on our stress must be protected.”