ER Activist Home Raided By Oz Counter-Terrorism Police For Taking Pictures Of Chalk Messages
An Extinction Rebellion activist whose home was raided by Western Australia’s counter-terror police over a chalk message has had the case against her thrown out by a Perth magistrate. Rosa Hicks was one of six arrested after a group of activists used washable chalk paint to write messages on a pedestrian bridge in Perth within view of Woodside’s headquarters to protest the company’s development of the $16bn Scarborough gas project.
Hicks was not involved in applying the paint, arrived after the protest had started and took photos on someone else’s phone. She said she did not take any active part and was very conscious of avoiding any violation of the conditions of her visa. Two weeks after the protest, on 19 August 2021, officers with the state security investigation group – a division of the Western Australian police force referred to as the state’s “counter-terrorism police” – raided the homes of the six activists in the early hours of the morning.
Four people who actually applied the paint have since pleaded guilty to damaging property by graffiti and received fines and a fifth activist is awaiting a trial to begin in April. However, police prosecutors maintained that Hicks’ photographing the incident amounted to aiding and abetting, despite her not being involved in applying the messages.
At a trial in the Perth magistrates court on Monday, prosecutors played half an hour of CCTV footage tracking Hicks’ movements that confirmed her account of events and a recording of the interview she gave police during the raid on her home. Magistrate Matthew Holgate, however, threw out the case on the grounds it had no legal basis. WA police were ordered to cover Hicks’ legal costs of $3,300.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/12/extinction-rebellion-activist-has-chalk-message-case-thrown-out-by-perth-magistrate