Ciaran O’Reilly, who hoped to challenge Obama over Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange, told he is a ‘prohibited person’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A Catholic activist who flagged his intention to confront US president Barack Obama during the G20 meeting in Brisbane is one of four people preemptively banned from the event.

Ciaron O’Reilly, who was acquitted by an Irish court over the damaging of a US warplane en route to Iraq in 2003, said police handed him a ban order on Thursday but could not give a reason.

O’Reilly on Tuesday issued a press release saying he would call on Obama to pardon jailed US army whistleblower Chelsea Manning and end any plans to prosecute WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.

“I know Julian’s dad and Chelsea’s mother so it’s quite a personal connection I have with them really, so I feel obliged to do some kind of action while I’m here in Brisbane and the guy holding the keys to their bondage is in town,” he told Guardian Australia.

O’Reilly said it was “guesswork” whether it was this or his “history of non-violent civil disobedience” that prompted the ban.

The peace activist served 13 months in jail, mostly in Texas, for his role in the “disabling” of a B-52 bomber in upstate New York during the 1991 Gulf war.

O’Reilly said WikiLeaks’s release of US diplomatic cables revealed that government’s annoyance at his acquittal in Ireland over the damaged warplane.

A notice addressed to O’Reilly from police commissioner Ian Stewart said: “I have been provided with information about you and after considering the material, I am reasonably satisfied that you are a person who should be included on the prohibited persons list”

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O’Reilly likened the challenge of getting close to political leaders to the Michael Moore film Roger and Me.

“I’ve confronted George Bush Jr in Belfast, and I’ve confronted Hillary Clinton in Dublin and Maggie Thatcher here in Brisbane in the 1980s,” he said.

“So it’s not impossible to get to these people and I’ve got a bit of history of getting to places I should not have been.

“(But) as I said to the cops today, I’m a pacifist so even if I’m completely wrong about everything, I can’t do too much harm, can I?”

A police spokeswoman declined to comment on the decision to ban O’Reilly. But she said 15 people had been excluded from the event, including four “prohibited” persons.

O’Reilly said he would ask his lawyer tonight about whether to appeal against the order, which bans him from inner Brisbane’s “declared zone” and the University of Queensland where Obama will give a speech on Saturday.

“Queensland’s got a long history of suppressing free expression like it’s doing today with the G20 but there’s also a long history of people non-violently resisting that,” he said.