Hannah Thomas, who was arrested at a Sydney protest in June, will sue the New South Wales police after the force dropped all charges against the former Greens candidate.
Thomas was arrested and charged alongside four others at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney on 27 June that was attended by about 60 people at SEC Plating. The 35-year-old was taken to hospital and underwent two rounds of surgery to her right eye, with her lawyers alleging a police officer punched her in the face.
On Tuesday, at Bankstown local court, the office of the director of public prosecutions said it was dropping the three charges against Thomas. One of the charges included a rarely used emergency power introduced in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots.
Thomas’s solicitor, Peter O’Brien, told reporters outside court that his team would be filing civil proceedings against the state of NSW in the supreme court.
They will allege that NSW police pursued a malicious prosecution and also claim Thomas was the victim of assault and battery by police, abuse of process and malfeasance in office.
“The charges [against Thomas] were clearly unsustainable from the very beginning, and as a result, they’ve now been … withdrawn.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,” O’Brien said.
Thomas, who spoke to reporters outside court alongside her lawyers, said she was relieved, but the dropping of the charges was “far from justice”.
She criticised the premier, Chris Minns, for enacting “draconian” anti-protest laws which she claimed had “emboldened police to act violently”.
“Four other protesters from the SE plating action that morning are still facing unfair charges that should never have been brought,” Thomas said outside court.
“They deserve justice as well.
Thomas had pleaded not guilty to three charges: resisting police, failure to comply with a move-on direction, and refusing or failing to comply with a direction to disperse.
The four protesters who were charged alongside Thomas have also pleaded not guilty to their various charges relating to the protest and their arrests.
“No cops have been held to account for their behaviour that day,” Thomas said on Tuesday.
“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.”
Days after Thomas’s arrest, the assistant commissioner Brett McFadden told ABC radio that he had viewed the body-worn video. He claimed there was “no information at this stage that’s before me that indicates any misconduct on behalf of my officers”.
Thomas’s arrest was declared a critical incident by police, which means the independent police watchdog will oversee an investigation into it.
She said protests would continue so long as the “Albanese government maintains the two-way arms trade” with Israel.
“Weapons are still being made in suburbs across this country, weapons that are used by the state of Israel to kill kids in Gaza every single day for more than 700 days.”
NSW police was contacted for comment.