Petrol bomb tweet from Sydney pro-Palestinian artist sparks police investigation
Police have visited a Sydney artist and quizzed him about his social media posts after he posted about the Israel/Palestinian conflict and included a line about a “petrol bomb”.
NSW
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A Sydney artist has been visited by NSW Police over pro-Palestine social media posts – which included a line “You’re lucky no one left a petrol bomb at your family home” to a Jewish community leader.
Oil painter Shayne Chester, an Islamic convert from Waterloo, had police seize his mobile phone, computer and laptop last week under a digital evidence access order after his public post on X, formerly Twitter.
Mr Chester, a 69-year-old disability pensioner, described the action as “weaponizing the police to terrorise citizens”.
He said his mention of the petrol bomb in the tweet was in relation to comment a few days earlier by NSW Greens politician David Shoebridge – who had publicly questioning the role of the police in the case of a “petrol filled bomb” being placed on a Palestinian supporter’s car at Botany.
Mr Chester’s full tweet, published on March 26, complained that the Sydney-based Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) had gone to the Human Rights Commission over two Western Sydney “imans who called Jews “vile & rats”.
“We have a responsibility to act against this horrendous stain on our national consciousness … yadeyade…Holocaust.”
“You’re lucky no one left a petrol bomb at your family home #alexrychvin”. Mr Ryvchin is the co-chief executive of the ECAJ.
Two days later officers from Kings Cross police station visited Mr Chester, who studied at the National Art School and offers his paintings online at Saatchi Art, and quizzed him about his social media posts.
The police Form 35 order from March 28 states that the digital order on Mr Chester will expire on April 10.
“About 4pm on Thursday (28 March 2024), officers attached to Kings Cross Police Area Command, executed a search warrant on a property at Cooper Street, Waterloo,” NSW Police Media said in a statement.
“During the search, police seized a mobile phone, computer and laptop.
“Inquiries into the matter are ongoing.”
Mr Chester said he was asked about his tweet by police.
“I am mystified why 12 top cops thought such an extraordinary action was necessary against a 69 year-old disability pensioner on the basis of a simple opinion expressed on Twitter of which they did not seem to understand its meaning or context,” he said.
“I am very interested however to know the name on the Search and Seize order and why they made it.”
Mr Chester said his tweet was comparing Mr Ryvchin’s “outrage and legal action at two Imams” with an alleged “lack of outrage at the case of Theo in Botany, who found a bomb on his car, and fought for eight weeks to get it investigated”.
Australian Jewish Association’s chief executive Robert Gregory said Mr Chester’s post had “targeted the Jewish community”.
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