Senior leaders of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have been accused of dodging questions about the arrest of an Iranian-Austalian protester that reportedly resulted in the man being hospitalised.
AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw sparred with Greens Senator David Shoebridge in Senate estimates late Monday night, declining to answer a series of questions about Hamid Sotounzadeh, who was handcuffed and detained outside the Iranian embassy in Canberra last Thursday.
Video clips circulating on social media purport to show an AFP officer engaging in a heated conversation with Sotounzadeh, telling him to get off a street by the embassy.
“No, I am standing here. This is my right,” Sotounzadeh replies, before he appears to be tackled to the ground.
A friend of Sotounzadeh told AAP he had suffered fractures in his lower back, neck and ribs.
Shoebridge asked Kershaw if he was aware of the “violent arrest” of Sotounzadeh, to which the commissioner replied: “I’m aware of the arrest, yes.”
Shoebridge asked him if he was “quibbling with the description” of the arrest as violent.
“Senator, I’m happy to help you out as much as I can without giving up confidences or confidential information,” Kershaw replied.
“But at this stage, we have spoken with him and we’ll be speaking with him again later this week. And I would not mention any of those things you’ve just mentioned to me, pending a possible statement of complaint from him.”
Kershaw declined to give any more details on the arrest, saying an internal investigation was ongoing.
Shoebridge told Crikey the questioning was a “bizarre Yes Minister experience” — referring to the BBC’s 1980s political satire show — and that Kershaw and his colleagues had dodged “the most obvious questions about the arrest”.
“In a moment of high farce, they even tried to avoid answering if they knew Hamid was hospitalised after the arrest,” Shoebridge said.
“The AFP’s refusal to provide candid responses in Parliament raises even more concerns about the timeliness and impartiality of their internal review.”
Asked for comment by Crikey, an AFP spokesperson said: “As this matter is now before the AFP’s internal integrity unit, no further comment will be made.”
The AFP had previously given a lengthier statement to the Canberra Times.
“The AFP is aware the man has alerted the media that he has sustained injuries during his arrest,” the statement said.
“The AFP is seeking to ascertain the veracity of those claims and has referred the incident to the AFP’s internal integrity unit, Professional Standards, for investigation.”
Sotounzadeh described himself as a 14-year veteran of the Australian Army in social media videos, and said he had been protesting outside the embassy for weeks.
Protests have rocked Iran after 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the country’s morality police last September.
Worldwide supporters of the Iranian protesters have been seeking to put pressure on the country’s theocratic regime by picketing embassies and consulates.
AAP reported Sotounzadeh and several others had gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Canberra last week to protest commemorations of the 44th anniversary of the country’s Islamic revolution.
