Josh ButlerWed 23 Nov 2022 22.51 GMT
Liberal senator James Paterson said he was “concerned” that activist Drew Pavlou was escorted from Parliament House by federal police yesterday after the pair had met, but the AFP and the parliament won’t say why he was asked to leave the building.Police officers told Pavlou he was considered an “active protester”, while sitting in a public cafe in Parliament House drinking a coffee, and that “higher ups” had said they wanted him to leave the building.“An Australian federal police team interrupted me while I was quietly having lunch at Parliament House and directed me to leave parliament or face trespass charges as a ‘high risk individual’,” Pavlou said.The Brisbane man is an anti-Communist party activist who has staged high-profile protests against Chinese human rights abuses and for pro-democracy causes in Hong Kong, including interrupting July’s Wimbledon tennis final by holding a sign and wearing a shirt reading “where is Peng Shuai?”.
He was arrested in London later that month after staging a small protest outside the Chinese embassy, holding a Uyghur flag. Pavlou said he was arrested over a false “bomb threat” delivered to the Chinese embassy that he claims came from a fake email address designed to frame him.