An Iranian-Australian human rights protester who has been hospitalised with serious injuries claims an Australian Federal Police officer assaulted him while peacefully protesting outside the Iranian embassy in Canberra.
Hamid Sotounzadeh was handcuffed and detained by police while protesting outside the embassy on Thursday morning and was found lying concussed by fellow protesters.
He was taken to Canberra Hospital where he was found to have three broken ribs as well as fractured vertebrae in his neck and back. He is expected to remain in hospital for several more days.
Sotounzadeh, who served in the Australian Army for 14 years, has travelled from Melbourne to Canberra for the past 16 weeks to protest outside the Iranian embassy as an act of resistance against the regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy and women’s rights activists.
Sotounzadeh insists he was protesting peacefully at the time and the officer who arrested him used excessive force to arrest him.
An AFP spokesperson said Sotounzadeh was detained because he “behaved in an aggressive manner towards the AFP members and was arrested for failing to comply with a lawful direction”.
“The person was handcuffed for a brief period of time, however, complained of back pain,” the spokesperson said.
“The handcuffs were removed to ensure the health and wellbeing of the person.
Read the article by Matthew Knott in The Sydney Morning Herald.