'Outta line brother': COVID conspiracy theorist's great escape
A COVID-19 conspiracy theorist has been arrested in Canberra after allegedly breaking out of locked down Melbourne and running the NSW border blockade on his way to take his protests to the national capital.
But it is unclear how "sovereign citizen" Simeon Cassar managed to make the journey undetected from central Melbourne across the NSW border and to Canberra, where he was arrested at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on Thursday.
Simeon Cassar, charged in Canberra with breaking ACT's COVID-19 border restrictions.
Police will oppose bail when Mr Cassar fronts the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon, the first person to face charges in the territory for failing to comply with COVID-19 border restrictions.
The activist's arrest was streamed live to his Facebook followers.
Authorities do not know how the 41-year-old Queensland man, who promotes COVID-19 conspiracy theories on his social media page, slipped across the shut down Victoria-NSW border on his mission to "hand back power to the Australian people".
But police believe the avid Donald Trump supporter, who belongs to a group who believe the Australian government has no legal authority, may have been denied entry into NSW from Victoria at least once in recent days before successfully making it to Canberra.
On July 7 Mr Cassar filmed himself berating Victoria Police officers as they enforced the five-day hard lockdown" on public housing towers on Racecourse Road in Flemington.
In footage uploaded to a Facebook conspiracy theory group, Mr Cassar can be heard telling officers that they were "out of line, brother", and then refusing to take directions from "corporate police".
"You'll all be done for treason one day," he told officers.
“I've come down from Brisbane to give you the news that the World Health Organisation has backed down."
By July 12, according to his online updates, Mr Cassar was on the road in country Victoria in his Queensland-registered car with, a huge red flag across the rear windshield, and by July 15 is believed to have set up camp at the Tent Embassy before his arrest the next day.
ACT Police confirmed it had arrested a 41-year-old man in the Canberra suburb of Parkes on Thursday, alleging he had travelled to the ACT from Victoria the previous day without an exemption from the ACT Chief Health Officer to enter the territory.
He has been charged with failing to comply with a Public Health Direction.
Detective Superintendent Jason Kennedy, Commander of the ACT Policing COVID-19 Taskforce, said the man was co-operative when taken into custody.
“We take the safety of the Canberra community seriously, especially those who may be at higher risk of health complications,” Detective Superintendent Kennedy said.
“ACT Policing will continue to take all necessary action to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
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