Fears of uni spies after five charged over G20 violence

from the sun-herald (sydney)

John Kidman
March 18, 2007

STUDENTS suspect ASIO and police officers have been spying on the Sydney University campus after undergraduate activists were arrested last week.

Three activists and a university librarian taken into custody on Wednesday have been accused by Victorian detectives of taking part in last year’s G20 protest violence in Melbourne. But student leaders say the arrests were also linked to State and Federal Government attempts to intimidate them in the lead-up to Sydney’s APEC summit in September.

The four men were roused from their Sydney homes at dawn, strip-searched and charged with riot, affray, unlawful assembly and dangerous conduct. A fifth suspect subsequently turned himself in.

The four activists charged on Wednesday - Sunil Menon, 25, of Darlington, Daniel Jones, 20, of Balmain, Timothy Davis-Frank, 22, of Bronte and Daniel Robbins, 23, of Newtown - will face Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. A 17-year-old youth was also charged.

The university’s Student Representative Council has written to vice-chancellor Gavin Brown insisting he clarify whether the presence of ASIO, state or federal police on campus constitutes an infringement of rights.

Source: The Sun-Herald

 

POSTED BY Administrator ON 03.19.07 @ 9:41 pm | 2 Comments

more from the herald sun

 

Out of control

from the scum 

Chris Tinkler

March 18, 2007 12:00am

 

DRUG use and under-age drinking have been exposed at a wild "all-ages" benefit gig for rioters charged over Melbourne’s G20 protests.

Children as young as 10 slugged beer in front of their dazed parents, a mother smoked cannabis beside a pram containing her baby and youths openly snorted powder off a table at Friday night’s event.

The Sunday Herald Sun also found traces of drugs including cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis in all of the toilet cubicles. The tests were conducted with Securetec DrugWipe kits, used by customs officers and police.

The $5-a-head event was run to raise funds for protesters arrested over the riots during the summit of the world’s financial leaders in November.

Police were bitten, vehicles smashed and barricades and other objects thrown at officers as demonstrations degenerated into chaos.

About 300 people attended the G20 Arrestee Legal Solidarity Benefit Gig, which raged until the early hours yesterday in a former lingerie factory in Brunswick.

But anti-capitalist chanting and police-baiting that characterised the G20 riot were absent — replaced by drunken and drug-fuelled debauchery.

The landlord of the Pitt St venue, rented by a collective, said he had not been told of the gig, which featured punk rockers Pisschrist.

The party was advertised through message boards on activists’ websites, with charged Monash student Akin Sari helping to promote it.

More than 30 protesters, including a private school boy, have been charged over the G20 violence.

Police are bracing for more violence on Tuesday, with protests planned outside Melbourne Magistrates Court where four alleged G20 rioters, who were arrested in Sydney dawn raids last Wednesday, are due to appear.

The Sunday Herald Sun revealed this month the Bracks Government had agreed to a secret $700,000 payout to protesters who clashed with police in the S11 riots outside the World Economic Forum in 2000.

POSTED BY Administrator ON @ 4:29 am | 4 Comments