A 74-year-old man found guilty of assaulting a far-right activist outside a tribunal hearing — which was looking into whether Australian TV host Sonia Kruger's call to ban Muslim immigration amounted to racial vilification — has won an appeal against his conviction.



Sam Ekermawi was acquitted of the June 2018 charge of assaulting Avi Yemini in the NSW District Court on Tuesday before Judge Helen Syme.

His lawyer, Abdullah Reslan, told BuzzFeed News his client was "very much relieved".

The appeal is the latest step in a legal saga that began more than three years ago when Kruger, who hosts The Voice Australia and the daytime program Today Extra, said Australia's borders should be closed to Muslim immigrants on the Nine Network's breakfast TV show in July 2016.

Ekermawi filed a complaint against Kruger in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal after he saw the broadcast, in which Kruger said she would like to see an end to Muslim immigration, adding that it was important "for the safety of our citizens".

Following a backlash, the former Dancing With the Stars host released a statement saying that "as a mother" she believed it was vital to be able to discuss these sorts of things without being called racist.

Ekermawi regularly files vilification complaints; earlier this year he elicited an apology from NSW Police over a training exercise in which two officers unnecessarily wore keffiyeh scarves while playing the role of terrorists.



The tribunal eventually found that Kruger's comments were a "stereotypical attack" on Muslims that would likely encourage hatred towards them as a group, but did not technically breach racial vilification laws since Muslims are not a race.

But the high-profile vilification case sparked a second legal dispute along the way: the assault charge against Ekermawi.