A record amount. Australian authorities promised this Saturday, September 6, a reward of more than 500,000 euros on Saturday, September 6, for any information that can lead to the arrest of the alleged murderer of two police officers, a follower of conspiracy theories of which for almost two weeks keeps the country in suspense.
Demond Freeman, 56, is sought by more than 450 police officers at the Australian bush of a fatal shooting on August 26 during a search in his house in the small city of Porepunkah, in the southeast of the Campo-Continent.
After multiplying the calls to surrender and question their relatives, the Victoria State Police announced that they would pay a million Australian dollars (around 560,000 euros) in exchange for information that would allow it to find it, an unprecedented amount by this force.
“This sum reflects the severity of this violent crime and our commitment to locate Freeman as soon as it stops representing a risk to the population,” said Inspector Dean Thomas, insisting on a reward “that a life will probably change.”
A probably strongly armed suspect
It is suspected that Desmond Freeman had demolished Neal Thompson, 59 and Vadim de Waart, 35, who were part of a team of ten agents who arrived at his house in an unrecognized case, and that a third party was injured. The victims belong to a section of the police responsible for sexual and pedophile crimes.
These facts are exceptional in a country where automatic and semi -automatic weapons have been banned since an isolated shooter massacred 35 people, in 1996, on the island of Tasmania. The national monument that pays tribute to the police murdered in the service lists the last case of death in the ball in 2023.
Police believe that Desmond Freeman, in the race in a dense forest area, is strongly armed.
A follower of conspiracy theories?
The Australian media describe the suspect as a follower of theories of the radicalized conspiracy, which reported his hatred towards the police. According to them, he would be part of the conspirator of “sovereign citizens”, whose members reject the authority of the State and submit to the laws.
His wife Amalia Freeman and his teenage son were briefly placed in police custody by the investigators, before being released. The suspect’s wife launched a public appeal to leave.
“At this stage, there are no indications that Freeman is assisted by a specific person, however, given the difficult land and the needs of obtaining their supplies, this remains a possibility,” the police said on Saturday in a press release, without excluding the hypothesis of a death.
An active online movement
It appeared in the United States in the 1970s, the movement of “sovereign citizens” extended today online, especially on Facebook in groups where activists rub their shoulders, but also the opportunists who seek, for example, a means to free themselves from the agreement of certain invoices.
In France, their followers believe that the State would not exist as a public entity, but that it would actually be a private law company created in 1947, which they would not have to present without consent.
One two was sentenced in April to five months in prison for rejecting the control of Gendarmerie.
Source: BFM TV
