RUKSHAN Fernando has been told by a close associate of Victorian fugitive and alleged shooter of two police officers, Desi Freeman. that he had been harassed relentlessly years by police and social services because he wanted to homeschool his children and refused to have them vaccinated.
The close associate described Freeman as a devout Christian who “did not want his kids indoctrinated with leftist bullshit”. Media reports falsely described Freeman as a “sovereign citizen who doesn’t follow Australian laws”. Freeman has in fact represented himself in the courts on numerous occasions, including in the Supreme Court, where he challenged a two-year cancellation of his driver’s license.
“They made his life hell and when they could not get him on anything they made up some historical sexual charges bullshit,” the friend told Fernando in a message sent to him and read out over social media.
In December 2021 some 250 people travelled to nearby Myrtelford to support the private prosecution of common law misprision of treason against Premier Andrews, brought by local chiropractor Anthony Herman.
As reported by Cairns News, the magistrate was surrounded by police when Magistrate Dunn made his decision, ruling that the “charge issued was not served”. The spectacle raised suggestions that police were expecting or seeking to provoke some sort of violent confrontation. In the wake of the uproar following the decision, Freeman was arrested but later released.
According to the ABC, 10 police officers went to Freeman’s home in Porepunkah, near Bright, on Tuesday morning to execute a warrant related to “alleged historical sex crimes”. During that visit it is alleged that Freeman fatally shot a 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable and then fled into nearby bushland.
Cairns News reported on activity by Freeman and his friends back in 2021 when they attempted to charge then Victorian Premier Dan Andrews with treason over his actions during the Covid lockdowns.
When the group encountered resistance to their attempts to get the matter heard in a court, they threatened a local magistrate with arrest. This apparently set off an alleged campaign of police and government harassment of Freeman.
His friend said Freeman had self-represented in the High Court, the Magistrates Court, County Court and Supreme Court. He said he arrested magistrates on several occasions but was not successful in all his cases.
He described Freeman as “highly intelligent and extremely knowledgeable about the law” and was concerned about tyranny facing Australians during Covid. He was involved in a number of issues, especially during Covid and was opposed to police thug tactics.”
“He’s a very great person and great father. I don’t condone what he did but I don’t think this is going to end well for him,” the friend said, adding that he thought Freeman probably could have beaten police if he took the right legal approach “but they just kept coming at him non-stop”.
“He is not a sovereign citizen, he is not that stupid, he knows that sovereign and citizen are contradictory terms, but he has been a freedom fighter that has been pushed too far.
“He is also a Commonwealth Public Official, which is someone that stands to enforce the law when politicians don’t. Also his family are safe and are not with him and are not that f….”ing stupid and they either have already or will make it known to police they are safe and are not hostages.”
Rukshan said the message was not from an anonymous account but he did not want to share the name.
“I personally condemn in the strongest possible terms the horrific slaying of law enforcement officers and everything must be done to bring the individual responsible to justice before the law,” he said, adding that the views and opinions expressed were those of the person that sent it to him.
“It’s a horrific crime and I cannot in any way condone it for whatever reasons people may have. It’s very hard to say that was an appropriate response and there’s no way we can reconcile these two events. It’s a tragic event, it’s a horrific event, and in the interests of justice he’ll either have to turn himself in or the police have to hunt him down and catch him if he’s gone on the run,” he said.
The mainstream media uniformly referred to Freeman as “a self-identified “sovereign citizen” who has a history of run-ins with the legal system.”
“In his most recent legal stoush with Victoria Police, Dezi Freeman took an officer to the Supreme Court over the cancellation of his driver’s licence.”
The ABC quoted neighbours as saying Freeman, aged in his 50s, was living with a group of other people in a compound at the end of a dirt track on the outskirts of town.
The ABC then went on to make a false claim about Freeman: “Sovereign citizens use false legal theories to support their belief that the government is illegitimate.” Since Freeman repeatedly used the legal system to fight various cases, it’s hardly the actions of someone who believes the government is illegitimate.
Freeman, also known as Dezi Bird Freeman, was previously known as Desmond Filby.
Media has also seized upon an outburst by Freeman in his Supreme Court case when he called police “friggin’ Nazis” and “terrorist thugs”. “What’s worse than a swastika is the inverted pentagram, the Satanic symbol that they wear and they behave like it as well,” he said during the hearing, The Border Mail newspaper reported. Justice James Gorton threw out his case.
The ABC noted that in another case Freeman attempted to arrest a magistrate in Wangaratta in 2019 during a dispute over public access to the Mount Buffalo National Park.
“Mr Freeman has also had run-ins with his neighbours at a previous address, appearing on A Current Affair in 2018 after complaining about being harassed by motorbike riders next door to his property.”
“One neighbour told the ABC Mr Freeman was an experienced bushman. “He’s well-versed in the bush and there’s caves up there, so it’ll be a while before they find him, I think,” he said.
