Prominent activist Monica Smit has been ordered to pay more than $200,000 in legal costs after a court found she was unlawfully arrested during anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne in October 2020.
Ms Smit was awarded $4000 in damages after two of her three claims were successful, but substantial costs were awarded to the Victorian government on Friday as she had turned down a pre-trial settlement of $15,000.
Taking to social media on Friday evening, Ms Smit described the costs as “quite shocking” adding she was “punished for making a point”.
“We did get a fair hearing but I don’t think this is fair,” she said.
“Do you think it’s fair for someone from the public to win their case and then have a $200,000 costs order against them? I don’t think people know that this happens — I don’t think that people know that this is the risk people take to stand up to authorities — and now they’re going to know.”
The founder of the Reignite Democracy Australia (RDA) lobby group was arrested three times during the October 31, 2020 “Stop the Sale of Victoria” protest at Treasury Gardens, which was organised to oppose the strict Covid measures of then-Premier Daniel Andrews.
The 36-year-old sued the Victorian government for false imprisonment in July.
The County Court of Victoria on Thursday ruled two of the three arrests were unlawful, as the government had failed in those instances to prove the elements required under section 458 of the Crimes Act for summary arrest.
“I have found that Smit was falsely imprisoned on two of the three occasions that she was arrested,” County Court Judge My Anh Tran said in her published decision, which noted there was “special and enduring protection afforded by the common law to the human right to liberty”.
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https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/melbourne-activist-monica-smit-unlawfully-arrested-during-2020-antilockdown-protest-court-finds/news-story/b53c9e5e617b546340e7690f77b99f83