A federal officer will not be charged after footage emerged of a protester being slammed into the ground by police, leading to his hospitalisation.
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Video posted on social media shows Hamid Sotounzadeh being tackled and restrained by Australian Federal Police officers outside the Iranian embassy in Canberra, where he was protesting in February 2023.
The internal Professional Standards investigation has been finalised and is in the administrative phase, an Australian Federal Police spokesman said.
Neither the officer nor the protester would be charged, the spokesman said.
The full investigation will not be made public with code of conduct matters subject to secrecy provisions.
Mr Sotounzadeh claimed his injuries, which included rib fractures, dislocated jaw, spinal disc protrusions and a number of sprains, were a result of the incident.
It had been tough to recover from the injuries after he spent more than a month in hospital, he told AAP.
"Obviously, when the AFP investigated the AFP wrongdoing they cover it up under the carpet and insensitively leave the victims with ongoing agony, fear, anger and frustration with injustice," he said.
Mr Sotounzadeh had the option of elevating his complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman if he was not happy with the investigation but has so far decided against doing so, saying it didn't have the authority to do anything meaningful.
Federal police accused the protester of acting "in an aggressive manner" towards officers.
Footage showed a police officer and Mr Sotounzadeh yelling at each other before the officer told the protester to get back.
It then shows Mr Sotounzadeh replying, "No, I am standing here, this is my right", before he is tackled.
At the time of the incident, he had been protesting outside the embassy for 16 weeks after the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in Iran at the hands of the nation's morality police for not correctly wearing her headscarf.
Her death triggered widespread protests in Iran and around the world, with women tearing off their headscarves and cutting their hair to protest against the strict theocratic regime.
Australian Associated Press
