Greens case against doctor dismissed

Charges against Dr John Nemesh for failing to print the name of the printer on poster he put up dissuading Marrickville residents from voting for the Greens. have been dropped.

Magistrate Margaret Quinn told Newtown Magistrates Court that “the whole affair was disgraceful” and that ot ranked very low “in criminality”.

Addressing the court, Nemesh’s barrister Stephen Russell  said that this was the first time a matter of this kind had been prosecuted in NSW.

In September 55-yr-old Dr John Nemesh faced the same court on charges brought by the police which were initiated by a complaint. Dr Nemesh had been conducting a campaign opposing the election of former Marrickville Fiona Byrne to represent Marrickville on behalf of the Greens Party in the State Parliament elections. Byrne failed to be elected.

Nemesh was particularly concerned with the Greens platform on Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. The Hungarian-born son of Holocaust survivors posted corflutes signs around the suburb highlighting the Greens’  attitude towards Gays and  BDS against Israel. He had neglected to add the printer’s name and postal address on the posters.

Matters became more interesting for the Dr Nemesh when a video appeared on YouTube featuring Fiona Byrne accompanied by a young man by the name of Kieran admitting that they had had stolen posters printed on behalf of Dr Nemesh and offering them autographed for sale to the highest bidder.

In September, Dr Nemesh lodged a complaint against Byrne and Kieran with the police for receiving stolen property.

In a statement issued today, Dr Nemesh said that he had been “helping Labor maintain the seat of Marrickville”.

Today, following his court appearance, Dr Nemesh made the short trip to Newtown police station where he entered complaints of his own against Greens Marrickville councillor Max Phillips, and Greens State member Jeremy Buckingham’s staffer and veteran Greens worker Colin Charlton.

Dr Nemesh stated: “On the night of March 25, Colin Charlton, who had told police that he had followed those putting up the posters ‘out of the area’ had also followed him 25 kms to his home.” A statement posted on the Greens web site declared that those responsible for the anti-Greens posters had come from Southern Sydney. Dr Nemesh remarked: “How would they know where I came from unless they had followed me home?”

Outside Newtown police station Dr Nemesh told J-Wire: “As far as the posters are concerned, Christine Milne, the deputy head of the Federal Greens Party made the same mistake as me and neither of us was charged by the electoral commission. Yet Max Phillips and Colin Charlton filed a complaint only against me. There seems to be one rule for the Greens and one for everyone else.”

In his statement to police, Max Phillips said: “People who were putting up the signs were leaving and heading back up towards Petersham. There were three younger people and an older guy in the car. They appeared to be well dressed twenty somethings. It occurred to me that they might be Jewish university students.” Nemesh said outside the court that Phillips “can consider himself extremely lucky not to have been hauled into the witness box to give evidence regarding his racial profiling of Jews.”

Dr Nemesh was not surprised at the magistrate’s comments. He said: “In a democracy such as Australia there’s no room for this sort of inhibition of the rights of individuals. When you cannot have international cultural exchanges, or educational exchanges or buy goods coming from a specified country…than that’s just not Australia.”

He will continue his work in the intensive care unit of Wollongong hospital with his complaints against the Phillips and Charlton in the hands of the NSW police.