'You are not my king,' Indigenous Australian senator yells at visiting King Charles

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament on Monday.

Sen. Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones.

“You committed genocide against our people," she shouted. “Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.”

No treaty was ever struck between between British colonizers and Australia's Indigenous peoples.

Charles spoke quietly with Albanese while security officials stopped Thorpe from approaching.

“This is not your land. You are not my king,” Thorpe yelled as she was ushered from the hall.

Thorpe is renowned for high-profile protest action. When she was affirmed as a senator in 2022, she wasn't allowed to describe the then-monarch as “the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” She briefly blocked a police float in Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Madri Gras last year by lying on the street in front of it. Last year, she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after video emerged of her abusing male patrons.

Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, made an oblique reference to the issue in his speech welcoming the monarch.

“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Albanese said. But, he said, “nothing stands still.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep the British king as Australia’s monarch, said that many supporters of a republic were honored to attend a reception for the Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.

“People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed and that’s just the republicans,” Dutton quipped.

But Australia’s six state government signaled their support for an Australian head of state by declining invitations to the reception. They each said they had more pressing engagements on Monday, but monarchists agreed the royals had been snubbed.

Charles used the start of his speech to thank Canberra Indigenous elder Auntie Violet Sheridan for her traditional welcome to the king and queen.

“Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning’s moving Welcome to Country ceremony, which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people, and all First Nations peoples who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” Charles said.

“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom,” Charles added.

Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely regarded to have been the consequence of disagreement about how a president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.

Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the subject during his current three-year term in government. But it is a possibility if his center-left Labor Party is re-elected at elections due by May next year.

Charles was drawn into Australia’s republic debate months before his visit.

The Australian Republic Movement, which wants Australia to sever its constitutional ties with Britain, wrote to Charles in December last year requesting a meeting in Australia and for the king to advocate their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March to say the king’s meetings would be decided upon by the Australian government. A meeting with the ARM does not appear on the official itinerary.

“Whether Australia becomes a republic is ... a matter for the Australian public to decide,” the Buckingham Palace letter said.

Earlier Monday, Charles and Camilla laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial then shook hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.

The memorial estimated 4,000 people had turned out to see the couple.

Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to a scaled-down itinerary. It is Charles’ 17th trip to Australia and the first since he became king in 2022. It is the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II traveled to the distant nation in 2011.

Charles and Camilla rested the day after their arrival late Friday before making their first public appearance of the trip at a church service in Sydney on Sunday. They then flew to Canberra where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.

Before leaving the war memorial, they stopped to greet hundreds of people who gathered under clear skies flying Australian flags. The temperature was forecast to reach a mild high of 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).

On Wednesday, Charles will travel to Samoa, where he will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Britain's King Charles III shakes hands with Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, right, at Government House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Saeed Khan/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, center, inspect plants during a visit to Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)

Britain's King Charles III, 2nd from right, talk with Australian Andrew Forrest, 2nd from left, before entering Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe, center, disrupts proceedings as Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Jaydon at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Lukas Coch/Pool Photo via AP)

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe, center, disrupts proceedings as Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Jaydon at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Lukas Coch/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, left, talks with staff during a visit to Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)

Queen Camilla, right, takes part in a discussion on family and domestic violence at Government House in Yarralumla at Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Brook Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III and Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sign royal warrants granting the Great Seal of Australia at Government House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Saeed Khan/Pool Photo via AP)

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe, center, disrupts proceedings as Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Jaydon at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Lukas Coch/Pool Photo via AP)

Royal supporters with greeting plate card to at Australian War Memorial to welcome Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla visit in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)

Britain's King Charles III, center left, and Queen Camilla, center right, arrive to lay a wreath at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Brook Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP)

King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive at the Australian War Memorial accompanied by Australian War Memorial Council Chair Kim Beazley, left, in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Brook Mitchell/ Pool Photo via AP)

Kim Beazley, third left, chair of Australian War Memorial Council, meets Britain's King Charles III, center, on the king's arrival with Queen Camilla, partially seen at rear center, in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.

Kim Beazley, third left, chair of Australian War Memorial Council, meets Britain's King Charles III, center, on the king's arrival with Queen Camilla, partially seen at rear center, in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.

Kim Beazley, third left, chair of Australian War Memorial Council, meets Britain's King Charles III, right, on the king's arrival with Queen Camilla in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.

Britain's King Charles III, center, and Queen Camilla arrive at Defense Establishment Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Saeed Khan/Pool Photo via AP)

Australia's Governor-General Sam Mostyn, right, escorts Britain's King Charles III, front center, and Queen Camilla as they arrive at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)

Britain's King Charles III, right, and Queen Camilla, center, receive flowers after arriving at Defense Establishment Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Saeed Khan/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, tight, chat with owner of alpaca before leave the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)

King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive at the Australian War Memorial accompanied by Australian War Memorial Council Chair Kim Beazley, left, in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Brook Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, and Queen Camilla chats with public before they leave the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese police chief on Monday apologized in person to Iwao Hakamada for his decades-long suffering that started from an overbearing investigation and wrongful conviction that had kept him on death row until last month, when he was acquitted in a retrial.

The 88-year-old Hakamada, a former boxer, was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court, which said police and prosecutors had collaborated to fabricate and plant evidence against him, and forced him to confess with violent, hourslong closed interrogations.

The acquittal was finalized earlier this month when the prosecution waived its right to appeal — though it complained about the ruling — finally ending Hakamada’s nearly 60-year legal battle to prove his innocence.

Shizuoka Prefectural Police chief Takayoshi Tsuda on Monday visited Hakamada at his home and offered an apology in person. As he entered the room where Hakamada, his sister Hideko Hakamada and their supporter waited, Hakamada silently rose from his sofa to greet him.

“We are sorry to have caused you unspeakable mental distress and burden for as long as 58 years from the time of the arrest until the acquittal was finalized,” Tsuda said, as he stood straight in front of Hakamada and bowed deeply. “We are terribly sorry.” Tsuda promised a “meticulous and appropriate investigation.”

Hakamada, who has difficulty carrying out conversation due to his mental condition from the decades of death row confinement, responded: “What it means to have the authority ... Once you have the power, you’re not supposed to grumble.”

Hakamada’s 91-year-old sister, who had stood by her brother through the long process to clear his name and now lives with him, thanked the police chief for visiting them.

“There is no use complaining to him after all these years. He was not involved in the case and he only came here as his duty,” she told reporters afterward. “But I still accepted his visit just because I wanted (my brother) to have a clear break from his past as a death row inmate.”

He was arrested in August, 1966, in the killing of an executive at a miso bean paste company and three of his family members in Hamamatsu, central Japan. He was initially sentenced to death in a 1968 district court ruling but was not executed because of the lengthy appeal and retrial process in Japan.

It took nearly three decades for the Supreme Court to deny his first appeal for a retrial. His second appeal for a retrial, filed by his sister in 2008, was granted in 2014. The court ordered his release from his death row solitary cell but without removing his conviction, pending the retrial process.

Hakamada was the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner and only the fifth death row inmate to be acquitted in a retrial in postwar Japan, where criminal trials take years and retrials are extremely rare.

His case and acquittal have triggered calls for more transparency in the investigation, legal change to lower hurdles for a retrial and debate over death penalty in Japan.

Iwao Hakamada, center, former Japanese death-row inmate acquitted after nearly 50 years on death row, and his sister Hideko, right, receive an apology from Shizuoka Prefectural Police chief Takayoshi Tsuda, not in photo, for his suffering at Hakamada's home in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)

Shizuoka Prefectural Police chief Takayoshi Tsuda, left, offers an apology to former Japanese death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada, center, and his sister Hideko, right, for his decades-long suffering, at Hakamada's home in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)