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POLICE in Melbourne have withdrawn charges against two Indigenous organisers of a 2020 Black Lives Matter rally.
Crystal Mckinnon and Meriki Onus were facing prosecution on Tuesday for breaching Melbourne’s Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
The police was ordered by the court to pay the pair’s legal costs, which could be as high as $100,000 (£83,000).
Ms McKinnon, an Amangu Yamaji woman, and Ms Onus, a Gunai and Gunditjmara woman, were originally fined $1,652 (£1,379) each for breaching lockdown restrictions when they organised a Black Lives Matter rally in Melbourne in June 2020.
About 10,000 people subsequently attended the rally while lockdown restrictions were in place, which included stay-at-home measures that banned public gatherings of more than 20 people.
In November police unsuccessfully attempted to change the wording of the charges because of what they described as a “fatal flaw.”
But on Tuesday, crown prosecutor Matt Fisher said as a result of the November decision over the wording there was “no reasonable prospect of conviction.”
Ms Onus said: “We would like to extend our solidarity and support to all people and groups organising and fighting for justice to end racism and the ongoing violence here in occupied aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land and across the globe.”
