Australian state's ex-premier targeted with baseless legal case claims

Published on September 8, 2025 at 10:29
2 min read
By Dene-Hern CHEN, AFP Australia

The Magistrates' Court in Australia's Victoria state dismissed allegations that former state premier Daniel Andrews was set to be in court the same week a gunman killed two police officers. The baseless posts, which suggested a police conspiracy, misrepresented an old case involving Andrews thrown out in 2021.

"So, Daniel Andrews was due to be in the Myrtleford magistrates court this Friday at 9:30am, Dezi Freeman is one of the blokes that lodged the case. Cops showed up on his doorstep on Tuesday, broke protocol & 2 cops have sadly lost their lives," said an Australian user on X on August 28, 2025.

Her post -- which garnered more than 290,000 views and was reposted some 1,400 times -- comes days after authorities went to Freeman's property in the rural town of Porepunkah to execute a search warrant.

The heavily armed 56-year-old fled into the bush after opening fire on a team of police officers, killing two and wounding one (archived link).

Australian media say the gunman is a radicalised conspiracy theorist and part of the "sovereign citizen" movement that believes laws do not apply to them (archived link).

With the X post was a screenshot of Freeman's face and text that read: "Mr Andrews has been summonsed to appear before the Myrtleford Magistrates' Court on Friday, with a court date listed for 9:30am."

"There is so much more to this story & now it is being used to target those that question Government tyranny & Police conduct," said the X user.

Screenshot of the false post, with the red X added by AFP

Similar claims were also shared on Facebook and TikTok, and reshared by users in neighbouring New Zealand.

"No wonder the police wanted Dezi Freeman silenced. It's almost like they set him up," said one user, while a commenter said, "This is no coincidence".

But the Magistrates' Court of Victoria told AFP that there was no criminal case listed for Andrews at any of its court locations on Friday, August 29, nor are there any cases scheduled against him at this time.

A keyword search of the text from the screenshot found it was actually from a Daily Mail article published on December 14, 2021, when Andrews was still the premier of Victoria state (archived link).

Comparison of the false post (left) and the Daily Mail article from December 2021 (right), with the identical passages highlighted in red by AFP

A member of the centre-left Labor party, Andrews stepped down in September 2023 after nine years as premier (archived link).

He oversaw Victoria state and Melbourne's Covid policies during the pandemic, with Australia's second-largest city spending among the most days under stay-at-home orders, leading to anti-lockdown protests (archived here and here).

An Australian Associated Press article published on December 17, 2021 -- the Friday mentioned in the Daily Mail's December 14 article -- reported that the treason case against Andrews was struck out by the court, as the "charge issued was not served" (archived link).

It remains unclear if Freeman had lodged the case as the AAP article named another man, but he had reportedly been arrested while protesting against Andrews outside the Myrtleford Magistrates' Court (archived link).

AAP has earlier debunked similar posts regarding the ex-premier and Freeman (archived link).

AFP has previously fact-checked several claims related to Andrews.

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