An Australian TV comedy group who upstaged police by driving through security checkpoints near where US President George W. Bush was staying have had all charges against them dropped, a court heard yesterday.
The stunt during the APEC leaders’ forum in September last year ridiculed security surrounding the event, which police had boasted was the tightest in Sydney’s history.
One of the group was dressed up to look like Osama bin Laden.
Police arrested 11 cast and crew from the Australian Broadcasting Corp’s The Chaser’s War on Everything TV program and charged them with entering a restricted APEC area. They were released on bail and each faced a potential six-month jail sentence.
But the New South Wales state Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery told a Sydney Magistrates Court yesterday that all the charges were dropped because the breaches were arguably an honest mistake.
“There is no reasonable prospect of conviction and for that reason, the prosecutions should not proceed,” Cowdery told the court.
Police waved through a fake motorcade of two motorcycles and three limousines bearing Canadian flags through two check points before comedian Chas Licciardello stepped from one of the cars wearing a long, fake Osama bin Laden-style beard and Islamic clothing. The group was arrested near the Intercontinental Hotel where Bush was staying.
The stunt was voted Best Television Moment at the MTV Australia national industry awards on Sunday night.
ABC TV director Kim Dalton welcomed the prosecutor’s decision.
“What was undeniably the greatest moment in political satire last year, which the ABC has always been very proud of, has been found to be just that — great political satire,” Dalton said in a statement.
State opposition leader Barry O’Farrell accused the state government of an “incredible” lapse in security.
“These guys got to within 50 meters of where the leader of the free world, the president of the United States, was sleeping,” O’Farrell said. “That is simply incredible.”
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