Outside parliament yesterday, Juliet Lamont, an Australian film-maker who has accused Israeli authorities of abuse, said Wong reiterated she believed the group’s allegations.
You couldn’t hear him pin drop in there. It was harrowing. It was acutely emotional. Every woman that was there, and I think it was maybe 10, they all believed us and came up to us at the end and thanked us for sharing our harrowing testimony, said that we were really brave and want to support us in the investigations.
Israel has denied allegations of mistreatment, claiming all prisoners and detainees were held “in accordance with the law”.
Melbourne student, Gemma O’Toole, said federal police had committed to taking the group’s testimonies, so “that is a process that we will be actioning as soon as possible”.
From there, they [federal police] will be going to Israel to try and get forensic evidence to try and get them to take part in the investigation, which you know they’re not hopeful will happen, and obviously we’re expecting not to happen, and that’s where that will stand … it’s been weeks that we’ve been back. You would have expected that they [the AFP] would’ve wanted this information from us. No, but here we are.
The Australian federal police will begin conducting “inquiries” into abuse and sexual assault allegations made against Israeli authorities by Australian members of the Global Sumud flotilla after meeting Penny Wong yesterday afternoon.
The AFP confirmed it had met members in the group at Parliament House and “has begun inquiries into allegations made by a representative of the group”.
Guardian Australia understands a report of crime has not yet been formally submitted, which would trigger a formal look into the allegations alleging they were abused, tortured and, in some cases, sexually assaulted by Israeli authorities while detained after attempting to deliver aid to the occupied Palestinian territory.
Wong, multicultural affairs minister Anne Aly, and senior AFP officers met the group to “listen to them directly about their experiences”, a spokesperson for Wong said.
The minister has condemned the actions of Israeli authorities and Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has already sanctioned, the spokesperson said.
She raised the allegations multiple times and made clear directly to Israel that Australia expects an “independent, transparent investigation”.
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
The Australian federal police will investigate alleged abuse and sexual assault by Israeli security forces against Australian members of the Global Sumud flotilla, it was announced last night. More coming up.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, will today introduce legislation to parliament to guarantee the right to work from home two days a week, including for part-time workers and regular casuals.
Plus, today the Reserve Bank announces its latest decision on which direction interest rates will move: but everyone’s expecting them to stay the same.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
