Drew Pavlou, an Australian ‘human rights activist’, has now accused the London Metropolitan Police of working in cahoots with the Communist Party of China (CPC) and targeting him.
The 23-year-old hails from Brisbane and was a student at the University of Queensland. On Sunday (October 30), he levelled serious allegations about the integrity of the London Met Police.
“Message from my British lawyers showing London Met Police are “waiting on evidence from Beijing” before waiting to charge me,” he tweeted while sharing the screenshot of a Whatsapp conversation.
For context, London Met Police threatened to issue an arrest warrant in my name if I didn’t fly from Australia to London on October 18 to personally attend bail at Hammersmith Police Station. They waited until I landed in London on October 17 to indefinitely postpone this date
— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) October 29, 2022
“The Met Police should explain to the House of Commons that they are allowing the Chinese government to essentially prosecute opponents in the UK,” he further added.
In another tweet, Drew Pavlou alleged that the police had threatened to issue an arrest warrant and directed him to return to London from Australia by October 18 this year. After he complied, the London Met Police indefinitely postponed his bail hearing.
“For context, London Met Police threatened to issue an arrest warrant in my name if I didn’t fly from Australia to London on October 18 to personally attend bail at Hammersmith Police Station. They waited until I landed in London on October 17 to indefinitely postpone this date,” he claimed.
The Background of the controversy
Drew Pavlou is a vocal critic of the Communist Party of China (CCP). In 2020, the Australian activist led a campaign to move the 2022 Winter Olympic Games from Beijing to elsewhere, citing the persecution of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Taiwanese people.
“Don’t let Beijing 2022 become Berlin 1936. #MoveTheGames,” he tweeted in October 2020. Recently, he disrupted a speech by China’s Ambassador to Australia and raised awareness about the missing Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai.
Don’t let Beijing 2022 become Berlin 1936. #MoveTheGames pic.twitter.com/PVMW686GEg
— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) October 24, 2020
On July 21 this year, he held a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in London for the oppression of Tibet, Taiwan, and Uyghur Muslims by the Communist Party of China (CPC).
He was arrested by the London Metropolitan police, not for trespassing on diplomatic premises as he expected, but for allegedly threatening to blow up the embassy.
Reportedly, the Chinese Embassy apprised the police of a mail received from an email ID ‘[email protected]’, threatening a bomb attack. Although Drew Pavlou has denied involvement in the matter, he alleged treatment at par with a ‘terror suspect.’
The Met Police are a complete embarrassment to the free world and every Met Police officer involved in my farce of a case should hang their heads in shame for enabling a foreign dictatorship to harass and abuse its opponents and critics through the British legal system
— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) October 29, 2022
While speaking to Sky News, he stated, “(The Chinese govt) created a fake Drew Pavlou ProtonMail … including bomb threats in this email, they’ve sent it to the Chinese embassy…They ended up holding me incommunicado past midnight, so I was held for a total of 24 hours.”
“For a substantial amount of that time I was incommunicado, so I was held in secret. I was treated as a terror suspect, I was held in secret, I wasn’t allowed to talk to a lawyer, I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone on the outside, I wasn’t allowed to talk to the Australian High Commission,” Drew Pavlou added.
Drew Pavlou and his anti-Modi history
As early as 2019, the Australian activist had been at the forefront of leading disinformation campaigns about India. Under the pretext of protesting against the humanitarian Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he made the false claim that Muslims are being killed on the streets by the Modi regime.
The archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.
Modi’s thugs are killing Muslims in the streets. Brisbane rally against the fascist BJP today #CAAProtest pic.twitter.com/7EB10FhwqV
— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) December 22, 2019
In another tweet, Drew Pavlou was seen endorsing the ‘out of context’ tweet by fake news peddler CJ Werleman. He had sought the deportation of BJP MP Tejasvi Surya from Australia for speaking out against the historical atrocities committed by Islamic invaders in India.
“Whether CCP or BJP I will always oppose fascism. Kick Tejasvi Surya out of the country, deport him,” he said in a tweet this year. The archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.
Whether CCP or BJP I will always oppose fascism. Kick Tejasvi Surya out of the country, deport him https://t.co/XaEmxCoHol
— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) June 4, 2022
Despite trying to internationally defame the Indian government, it is not PM Modi or BJP that is hounding the 23-year-old. As per his own testimony, his targeted harassment is the handiwork of the CPC, aided by the London Metropolitan Police.
