{"id":1851,"date":"2026-06-03T17:33:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T17:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1851"},"modified":"2026-06-03T17:33:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T17:33:38","slug":"australian-judges-weigh-indigenous-activists-bid-to-prosecute-king-charles-for-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1851","title":{"rendered":"Australian judges weigh Indigenous activist\u2019s bid to prosecute King Charles for genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>MELBOURNE, Australia<\/strong> | Three Australian appeals court judges reserved their decision Wednesday on whether an activist can prosecute Britain\u2019s King Charles III for alleged genocide of Australia\u2019s Indigenous people.<\/p>\n<p>Uncle Robbie Thorpe, 68, turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Victoria state after two lower courts rejected his bid to launch a private prosecution against the king in the Melbourne Magistrates\u2019 Court. Indigenous Australians use the titles uncle and aunt as marks of respect for community elders.<\/p>\n<p>His case alleges the monarch, who is also Australia\u2019s head of state, the Australian government and its institutions were perpetuating a genocide of Indigenous people by maintaining systemic disadvantages on multiple socioeconomic levels, making them the most underprivileged minority in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Indigenous Australians account for 4% of the population. They die younger than other Australians, suffer worse health problems, and are more likely to be imprisoned and unemployed than other groups, according to official statistics.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Thorpe told The Associated Press if he exhausts his legal options in Australia, he would take the offense under the Genocide Convention to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s clear that they\u2019re unwilling, unable, reluctant to deal with these international legal issues like genocide,\u201d Thorpe told the AP before the hearing, referring to the Australian judiciary.<\/p>\n<p>He later told the judges Indigenous people were dying because their disadvantage in Australia was compounding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Crown is responsible for all this mess,\u201d Thorpe said. \u201cAustralia\u2019s got away with genocide of Aboriginal people since they arrived here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The British colonized Australia in 1788 and violently seized Indigenous people\u2019s land without a treaty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey totally failed to prevent (genocide). That\u2019s the crime here. They failed to prevent genocide knowingly and they failed to punish anyone for it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The British punished Indigenous people for speaking their language and for practicing their cultures in a bid to make them Christian and Western. Generations of children were taken from Indigenous families in now-discredited assimilation policies.<\/p>\n<p>Thorpe wore a traditional possum-skin coat in court and carried a feather from an Australian wedge-tailed eagle, an Indigenous totem.<\/p>\n<p>He requested to be addressed in court as Uncle Robbie or by his tribal name Djuran Bunjileenee.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Karin Emerton, the court\u2019s presiding judge, referred to him as Uncle Robbie.<\/p>\n<p>The king was identified in court documents as Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor.<\/p>\n<p>Thorpe is attempting to charge the king under Indigenous law that has existed for more than 65,000 years, state common law and federal criminal law, court documents show.<\/p>\n<p>In dismissing Thorpe\u2019s appeal last year, a judge ruled that a magistrate was not allowed to consider Indigenous law and genocide was not an offense under common law.<\/p>\n<p>The federal attorney-general would have to sign off on any genocide prosecution under federal law, the judge ruled.<\/p>\n<p>Following a two-hour hearing on Wednesday, Emerton said the three judges would deliver their verdict at a later date.<\/p>\n<p>If Thorpe loses, his final option would be Australia\u2019s High Court before attempting to have the king prosecuted in The Hague.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1846\">Predators hire Chris MacFarland from Avalanche to become president of hockey operations\/GM<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1847\">EDITORIAL: Aurora needs an alternative to shooting people having a mental crisis<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1849\">Trump\u2019s Education Department is backing away from addressing civil rights for Black students<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MELBOURNE, Australia | Three Australian appeals court judges reserved their decision Wednesday on whether an activist can prosecute Britain\u2019s King Charles III for alleged genocide of Australia\u2019s Indigenous people. Uncle Robbie Thorpe, 68, turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Victoria state after two lower courts rejected his bid to launch a private prosecution [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1101,1093,1094,67,1103,63,1144],"tags":[2910,2911,2912,165,866],"class_list":["post-1851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-0-no-apple-publish","category-0recent-headlines","category-0trending","category-nation","category-uncategorized","category-world","category-z-ntl-galley","tag-indigenous-australians","tag-justice-karin-emerton","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-the-associated-press","tag-united-nations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Australian judges weigh Indigenous activist\u2019s bid to prosecute King Charles for genocide - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1851\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australian judges weigh Indigenous activist\u2019s bid to prosecute King Charles for genocide - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MELBOURNE, Australia | Three Australian appeals court judges reserved their decision Wednesday on whether an activist can prosecute Britain\u2019s King Charles III for alleged genocide of Australia\u2019s Indigenous people. Uncle Robbie Thorpe, 68, turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Victoria state after two lower courts rejected his bid to launch a private prosecution [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1851\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-03T17:33:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/860d8c9be7e4969f72ed251197548d9b\"},\"headline\":\"Australian judges weigh Indigenous activist\u2019s bid to prosecute King Charles for genocide\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-03T17:33:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851\"},\"wordCount\":567,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bd035e2e9c3467bfcb4f374889ca9887.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Indigenous Australians\",\"Justice Karin Emerton\",\"King Charles III\",\"The Associated Press\",\"united nations\"],\"articleSection\":{\"0\":\"0 - No Apple Publish\",\"1\":\"0Recent Headlines\",\"2\":\"0Trending\",\"3\":\"Nation\",\"5\":\"World\",\"6\":\"z-ntl-galley\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851\",\"name\":\"Australian judges weigh Indigenous activist\u2019s bid to prosecute King Charles for genocide - Denver Moving Chronicle\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bd035e2e9c3467bfcb4f374889ca9887.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-03T17:33:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/860d8c9be7e4969f72ed251197548d9b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=1851#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bd035e2e9c3467bfcb4f374889ca9887.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bd035e2e9c3467bfcb4f374889ca9887.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":682,\"caption\":\"Uncle Robbie Thorpe speaks outside the Victoria state Supreme Court of Appeal in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. 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