Australian human rights activist Drew Pavlou is facing a court hearing over his protest against Chinese leader Xi Jinping last year.
Pavlou, a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was arrested by New South Wales (NSW) police at an anti-CCP rally in Eastwood, a Chinese community in northwest Sydney, in May 2022 and was detained for five hours in a cell.
Holding a sign that read “F**k Xi Jinping” in Mandarin at a busy shopping street in Eastwood, which boasts the state’s highest Chinese population, the former senate candidate sparked a strong reaction from Chinese nationals who cursed him as “motherf**ker” and “son of a b**ch.”
“F** you, motherf***er,’ one yelled at him repeatedly. ‘It’s free speech!’
“America has genocide, not Xi Jinping.”
“We are against the dictatorship. We believe in democracy. Free Hong Kong. Free Taiwan,” Pavlou, who was supporting Kyinzom Dhongdue, the Tibetan candidate of Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance running for the Bennelong seat in the 2022 federal election, told the crowd.
The 23-year-old was arrested after allegedly failing to comply with a move-on direction by the police at the site and later charged with behaving offensively in public.
More footage of violent Chinese ultra-nationalists assaulting me and an independent protest journalist because I held up a sign saying “Fuck Xi Jinping” in the middle of Sydney while campaigning with my party for the Australian elections. @Chriscoveries attacked from behind pic.twitter.com/UUh7bc8oW7
— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) April 30, 2022
He was bailed on the condition that he does not visit Eastwood or Epping.
Parramatta local court confirmed to The Epoch Times that the matter is listed on March 15 at the court for a hearing.
Pavlou: ‘Keep Standing up For Free Speech’
Pavlou said he would not back down from his activism against the CCP despite the challenges he had been facing.
“Many powerful players have tried to censor me…
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