NSW Police to drop anti-riot charge against injured protester Hannah Thomas

9 hours ago 4

NSW Police will drop some of the charges laid against former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas after a review found officers incorrectly sought to use extraordinary emergency powers introduced to quell major riots.

Instead, Thomas, who suffered a serious eye injury after police broke up an anti-Israel protest outside a business in Belmore last month, will face a more standard charge of failing to comply with a move-on direction along with the existing charge of hindering police.

Former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas is recovering from an eye injury suffered after police broke up a protest in Sydney last month

On Monday, this masthead revealed Thomas had been charged under a rarely cited emergency anti-riot power introduced after the 2005 Cronulla riots to deal with “large-scale public disorder”.

Court documents obtained by the Herald revealed that unlike the four others arrested at the protest, Thomas was charged under an emergency power known as part 6a, which requires authorisation by an assistant commissioner or higher to be used.

The extraordinary powers, which police last threatened to invoke after demonstrations at the Sydney Opera House in 2023, give officers the ability to stop and search vehicles, detain people and disperse crowds.

But on Monday Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden said that after a review of the charges as part of the critical incident investigation launched following Thomas’s injury, police would seek to withdraw the charge laid using the emergency powers.

“On Monday 30 June 2025, I put in place a process to review the charges laid in this matter to ensure the relevant and most appropriate charges are applied,” he said.

“The review is part of normal critical incident protocols.

“As part of the review an additional charge of refuse/fail to comply with direction under Part 14, section 199(1), LEPRA 2002, has been laid today [and] at the next court appearance, police will seek to withdraw the alternative charge under section 87ma(4).

“As the matter is before the court and subject to a critical incident investigation oversighted by LECC, we are unable to provide further information.”

Police have not explained why the part 6a charge was laid against Thomas.

Earlier on Monday Premier Chris Minns declined to say whether police had approved the use of the emergency powers.

“I’m concerned that I would be accused of interfering or offering a commentary before it’s been completed and presented to both police and the government, and I want to make sure that it can be done independent from from me,” he said.

Greens MP Sue Higginson said she made a formal complaint to the NSW Police watchdog alleging misconduct by officers involved in the arrests at the protest, and the invocation of emergency powers in court documents.

She suggested that if the powers had not been formally invoked, it raised the possibility that officers were “reverse engineering evidence”.

Undeterred by the events of last month, pro-Palestine activists are planning another protest at Belmore this Friday evening. The rally will call for “no cops at protests”.

Minns urged people to “use common sense”.

“No one wants to put anyone in a position where there’s a violent confrontation. I’m hoping that, in all circumstances, cooler heads prevail, and that, yes, the right to protest is protected, but also we don’t put anyone in a difficult situation where police have to intervene,” he said.

“I’m not suggesting the protest on Friday is linked with some of the events we’ve seen in Melbourne over the weekend, but this is a very difficult thing for police, law enforcement and governments to get right.”

The Herald revealed on Monday that Thomas is due to have a second round of surgery later this week in an attempt to save the sight in her badly injured right eye. However she has been warned she will probably never regain full vision.

“In terms of the mental health impact, I don’t know if I’ve even begun processing that, to be honest,” she said.

“At this early stage, I can’t see how my life ever gets back to the same.”