Header Ads Widget

Man arrested after ‘planning party to celebrate Queen getting Covid’

Extinction Rebellion activist Eric Serge Herbert, 23 (Pictures: AAP/ Nine)
Eric Serge Herbert, 23, was previously jailed for stopping a coal train for five hours by ‘climbing on top of it’ (Pictures: AAP/ Nine)

An Extinction Rebellion activist in Australia was arrested after allegedly organising an ‘anti-monarch street party’, in honour of the Queen contracting Covid-19.

In a social media post, Eric Serge Herbert called on people to ‘rejoice by dancing’ in Newtown in Sydney’s inner-west this Saturday.

He added that those present could ‘imagine the corpse of the oppressors being mangled beneath our feet’.

The event page for the party said: ‘It’s about time we overthrow the queen and the rule of the monarch.

‘We need sound systems, lots of glitter, tools to dig up the road, tires of barricades, fire and rage.’

The Queen tested positive for the virus over the weekend, suffering from mild cold-like symptoms, and prompting an outpouring of well-wishes from the public and politicians across the world.

It comes a week after her eldest son Prince Charles tested positive for a second time.

Defence lawyer Mark Davis argued the party was a joke and the 23-year-old was not actually planning the inappropriate bash, the Daily Mail reported.

Activist Eric Herbert is released from the Police Watchhouse in Brisbane (Picture: AAPIMAGE)
Defence lawyer Mark Davis argued the party was a joke and the 23-year-old was not actually planning the inappropriate bash (Picture: AAPIMAGE)

Police allege Herbert breached the bail conditions granted to him when he appealed a 12-month prison sentence for blockading coal trains in the Hunter region of New South Wales last year.

Mr Davis confirmed his client had denied breaching his bail and that the post was intended in jest.

‘I’ll put this bluntly because I think it needs to be – this is a comedic post, it’s an ironic post’, he said.

Magistrate Joy Boulos granted Herbert bail, agreeing he clearly did not intend to go to the party, but told him to stay away from social media. 

Not a stranger to controversy, the campaigner stopped a coal train for five hours by ‘climbing on top of it’ in October last year.

It was to oppose the role Australia plays in the climate and ecological crisis.

He was arrested a week later while walking in a national park on Kooragang Island.

Herbert later pleaded guilty to obstructing a rail locomotive, attempting to hinder the working of mining equipment and attempting to assist in the obstruction of a rail locomotive and was sent to prison.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.



from News – Metro https://ift.tt/suDX53Y

Post a Comment

0 Comments