Court hears how anti-G20 'true believer' assaulted police Kate Hagan February 5, 2008
A 29-YEAR-OLD man who hurled rocks at police as they sheltered behind a brawler van during anti-G20 protests was motivated by genuine political beliefs, a court has heard.
Akin Sari, a former Monash University commerce student, pleaded guilty in the County Court yesterday to nine charges including criminal damage, assault and rioting in connection with the G20 world economic summit in Melbourne from November 17 to 19 last year.
Prosecutor Chris Beale told the court that Sari made the guilty plea while in custody and was facing the prospect of spending years in jail awaiting a trial after a magistrate refused him bail following his extradition from Sydney. Police claim Sari travelled to Sydney last September to attend the APEC summit, which he denies.
Mr Beale said Sari was among a group of protesters who emptied water-filled barricades and used them as battering rams against about a dozen police, at whom they hurled glass bottles, rocks, milk crates and bags of rubbish. Just minutes later they stormed a second barricade and attacked police who took shelter behind a brawler van.
In dramatic footage played to the court, Sari could be seen wearing a white jumpsuit and going around the side of the van to throw rocks at police from close range. He is also seen throwing a metal traffic sign to smash the van's window, and stealing a police log book from inside the cabin.
In separate incidents, Sari was among 20 protesters who stormed an Australian Defence Force recruiting centre, throwing chairs, overturning tables, tearing down displays and scrawling graffiti such as "lies".
He also grabbed a metal pole from two contractors erecting barriers and smashed the windscreen of their ute.
In a victim impact statement tendered to the court, a policewoman said she was no longer able to perform operational duties after a barricade was ripped from her grasp at the demonstration, tearing tendons in her elbow.
Defence counsel Dermott Dann said Sari genuinely believed the G20 summit was "an instrument of oppression".
"This wasn't a man who came along for the ride one day in November 2006 for no other reason than amusement."
Mr Dann said Sari, who had a history of mental illness, came to Australia in 2001 and obtained political asylum after being arrested in Turkey for taking part in a student demonstration.
Judge Roy Punshon will sentence Sari at a later date.
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