An off-duty police officer (we’ve chosen not to name) today confirmed to VicNews that Avi Yemini was never arrested at an anti-COVID lockdown protest in Melbourne on May 29, 2021 at Flagstaff Gardens.
“Instead, the cops ended up looking silly, as Avi had far more understanding of the law than they did,” Rebel News owner, Canadian Ezra Levant said.
But, Yemini’s ‘understanding of the law’ is incorrect. Yemini was never arrested. He just claimed he was. Then he asked the public for donations for his quasi ‘arrest’.
VicNews today spoke with several former inmates who have served time at the former Pentridge (Coburg), Fulham (Sale) and Barwon (Geelong) prisons. The former inmates confirmed that “there is no fuckin’ way Yemini would have been filming from the back of divisional ‘divvy’ van with a fucking [mobile] phone.”
“If he was actually fuckin’ arrested he’d have no access to a bloody [mobile] phone, his shoes, jacket and anything else in his possession would have been seized by police, placed in [a] tagged brown [paper] evidence bags, and Yemini would have been taken to the nearest police station for questioning ‘on the record,’ ” a former inmate told VicNews.
The unnamed police officer confirmed the former inmates’ statements. Yemini was simply asked to ‘move on.’ Yemini failed to do so “failing to adhere to police instructions,” so he was ‘temporarily detained’ and removed from the area police had requested he leave, under police ‘move on’ powers.
Yemini was never arrested nor was he ever under arrest. As he was not ever under arrest he was not read his rights, taken into custody or given the – legally required if under arrest – phone call to a lawyer and family member at a police station.
He was requested by police to ‘move on’ and ‘leave the area,’ a power police have. He failed to do so. As such he was forcibly removed. That’s all. He was never ‘arrested’ at all.
When Yemini refused to do so, police removed him by force instead. But there was no arrest. Yemini was not even taken to a police station for an interview – standard police procedure for any citizen who has been arrested. No record of arrest exists. Yemini – like anyone who has been arrested – was not even taken to the nearest police station for an interview ‘on the record.’
He was simply placed in a divisional van removed from the area and let go again, which is why he was able to make his video posted to Twitter/X calling for donations from the back of divisional van. He wasn’t under arrest on this occasion. Never was.
Go on, try it yourselves. Go out, commit a crime and see if you get to make videos to your mobile phone from the back of the divisional van. Hint. You won’t. Police will have custody of your mobile phone.
“There was no legal requirement to [inform Yemini of his rights to a lawyer, remain silent] do so. He wasn’t under arrest,” the officer told VicNews.
Yemini was never arrested. According to both police and convicted criminal sources – who’ve actually been arrested, interviewed, detained and served time – Yemini is “talking out his … “
The last time Yemini was really arrested was for domestic violence when he threw a chopping board at his former partner. Every other time, it is simply a made-up “arrest” to call for “donations.”
Yemini also claimed that: “Police surrounded me for allegedly “not being a Victoria Police accredited journalist.”” Getting the accreditation is not hard, provided one has some form of journalistic qualification.
This author has Victoria Police media accreditation, and I have (sadly) served time. The reality is that Yemini has no past journalistic credentials – other than TR News and Rebel News – to argue for Victoria Police media accreditation.
We don’t see Yemini or the other Rebel ‘News’ reporters fighting for their FRV/MFB/CFA/DEWLP/Ambulance Victoria media accreditation, just police. Ask yourself why.
If Yemini and Rebel News were bona fide media outlets, surely they’d want their ‘journalists’ to have fire, defence and ambulance media accreditation too, not ‘just the cops.’
These false claims are almost always soon followed by calls for donations on social media: “This story is a testament to what we can achieve when we stand together. Your support fuels our work. Head over to RebelNews.com.au and donate if you can to help us continue to challenge the establishment. Every dollar counts!”
Whilst Yemini and Rebel News blocked us on social media, they’ve been emailing us their daily grifting operations for over 12 months now and we continue investigating their grifting operations.
If Yemini had actually been arrested, there would have been no videos and he would have been taken to the ‘submarine’, the underground prison below Melbourne’s city courts before appearing before a Magistrate for bail. Which never happened, because he was never ‘under arrest’ at all.
This is Part II of our ongoing investigation into Rebel News.
Avi Yemini, Rukshan Fernando, Ezra Levant and Rebel News were contacted for comment. No responses were received.
Do you know more about this story? Email us at editor @ victoriannews.com.au (remove the spaces).
More to come.
