A New South Wales police officer has been charged with assaulting Hannah Thomas, who sustained a serious eye injury after she was arrested at a protest in June.
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 and will soon undergo a third.
Earlier this month, the office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) dropped all three charges against Thomas.
NSW police said in a statement on Tuesday that a 33-year-old senior constable, attached to a specialist command in the South West metropolitan region, had been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He was due to appear before Bankstown local court on 18 November.
“As police attempted to move on some of the protesters, a 35-year-old woman sustained facial injuries and was hospitalised for treatment,” NSW police said in a statement on Tuesday announcing the officer had been charged.
“An investigation was launched by the NSW police professional standards command. The officer is being managed in the workplace and his employment status is under review.”
Police are conducting a critical incident investigation – triggered after a person is injured or dies during a police operation – into Thomas’s arrest. The investigation is being overseen by the independent police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.
The June protest took place at SEC Plating, which the protesters said was manufacturing parts used in the F-35 jet program. SEC Plating has denied this
Thomas said on Tuesday that the officer being charged was “a vindication for every person in this country who has protested for Palestine and been smeared for it”.
“I hope it encourages people to question the narrative pushed by politicians in relation to protestors, and to defend their right to protest by exercising it,” Thomas said in a statement.
The 35-year-old said there had been a “war waged by politicians, particularly Labor politicians, on our right to protest and protestors calling for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.
Thomas’s lawyer Peter O’Brien said on Tuesday that “it was of real and stark concern that the immediate response by the leadership of NSW police in the immediate aftermath of Ms Thomas’s injury being sustained was that officers had done nothing wrong”.
“Ms Thomas’s injuries remain extremely serious and her long-term prognosis is still unknown,” he said.
Thomas’s lawyers announced on the day the charges were dropped that she would be filing civil proceedings against the state of NSW in the supreme court. Guardian Australia understands that action is yet to be filed.
Her lawyers will allege that NSW police pursued a malicious prosecution and also claim Thomas was the victim of abuse of process and malfeasance in office.
The DPP has dropped charges against three other protesters – Holly Zhang, Zack Schofield and Shane Reside.
Another protester, Brendan Eid, had a larceny charge against him withdrawn, but pleaded guilty to possessing goods suspected of being unlawfully obtained.
Zhang, Schofield and Reside are now also considering potential civil claims against NSW police, their lawyer confirmed.
Last week, the court awarded legal costs to the trio as well as Thomas. She was awarded almost $22,000, while Zhang was awarded about $6,500, Schofield was awarded about $6,000 and Reside received $5,000.
