No Charges Over Bin Laden Comedy Stunt

By Sky News SkyNews - Monday, April 28 01:09 pm

Charges have been dropped against a comedy group which breached "tight" security to get within metres of President George Bush - with one member dressed as Osama bin Laden.

The stunt happened as the American president stayed in Sydney, Australia, last September.

It was staged during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' forum and made a mockery of police boasts that security was the tightest in Sydney's history.

Police waved a fake motorcade of two motorcycles and three limousines bearing Canadian flags through two checkpoints.

Comedian Chas Licciardello then stepped from one of the cars wearing a long, fake bin Laden-style beard and Islamic clothing.

Police arrested 11 cast and crew from the Australian Broadcasting Corp's "The Chaser's War on Everything" near the Intercontinental Hotel where Mr Bush was staying.

They charged them with entering a restricted APEC area and released them on bail with each detainee facing a potential six month jail sentence.

But the New South Wales state Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery told a Sydney Magistrates Court 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," he told the court.

The stunt was voted Best Television Moment at the MTV Australia national industry awards Sunday night.

ABC TV director Kim Dalton said: "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."

State opposition leader Barry O'Farrell accused the state government of an "incredible" lapse in security.

He said: "These guys got to within 50 meters of where the leader of the free world, the president of the United States, was sleeping. That is simply incredible."

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