Ahmedabad: Having spent three days in police remand, all Wen Johnson longed for was fresh air and a cup of tea. But his chai break did not turn out to be as peaceful as he would have thought, with hundreds mobbing him for selfies.
This made the Aussie of Chinese descent nervous and he made a dash for his hotel — not unlike the spurt he put in at the Narendra Modi stadium during the World Cup final.
As he ran towards his hotel Wednesday, Johnson was followed by a swelling paparazzi-like crowd of locals who had camped outside his hotel, waiting for him to come out again.
Quickly whisked away to safety by the hotel staff, Johnson was unfazed.
“It isn’t all that scary. I’m just happy so many people got my message of Free Palestine,” the Australian citizen with distinctive features — spiked hair and magenta braids — tells ThePrint, sipping coffee at a Starbucks here.
Johnson has become a sort of local celebrity after he made a dash for the pitch at the Narendra Modi stadium during the final of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup Sunday, wearing a T-shirt that read “Free Palestine” on the back and “Stop Bombing Palestine” on the front.
It’s evident that Johnson loves the attention. He even goes up to strangers and asks if they recognise him as the man who invaded the pitch and tried to hug Virat Kohli during the World Cup finals. He borrows others’ phones to check how much of a debate his stunt might have triggered on the Israel-Palestine conflict on social media, or if he made it to the front page of The New York Times or the Sydney Morning Herald.
Those who root for Johnson as a thinking, argumentative revolutionary who dared to stand up for Palestine in front of more than one lakh people are in for a disappointment. So are those who think he’s a rebel without a cause, yearning for headlines.
He’s a bit of both: an aspiring influencer hungry for attention, and a young First World citizen pondering over the intricacies of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Johnson has been booked under sections 353 and 441 of the IPC, which correspond to charges of use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of duty and trespassing, respectively. He cannot leave Ahmedabad until the completion of his trial.
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‘Plan was to invade pitch when Virat on strike’
According to Johnson, he failed to gauge the repercussions of breaching the security parameter during a World Cup match on Indian soil. “I mean, I knew people won’t be happy about it. I knew I’d have to pay a fine. But I didn’t think my passport would be seized and I’d have to face a trial,” he tells ThePrint.
Intruding a major sporting event for a cause is an effective way of protesting and making noise about the cause one stands for, says Johnson, who pulled off a similar stunt during a rugby match back in Australia in 2020 and later the final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup match, wearing a ‘Free Ukraine’ T-shirt, this August.
Both times, he says, Australian authorities let him go with a slap on the wrist.
Johnson says his Palestinian friends back in Sydney told him about the “oppression” suffered by residents of Gaza and West Bank. He also claims to have attended a pro-Palestine rally in Sydney, which is when he decided to make a statement on the conflict.
“Only a few sporting events get bigger than the cricket World Cup finals. Perhaps only football. And perhaps only Messi is bigger than Kohli. I knew the world would be watching and I had to go there,” he says.
When tickets for the World Cup went live, Johnson remained glued to his laptop all night to secure a ticket with a seat that would allow him to access the pitch and dodge security. He got a seat in the seventh row and flew to India soon after, excited to meet Virat Kohli.
“Virat is the biggest star. It was important for me to ensure I invade the pitch in his presence,” he says.
“I didn’t think the security would be so tight. It’s not that tight in Australia. But I decided to simply make a run for it,” he adds, proud of having outrun dozens of security personnel deployed at the boundary. His football training during school came in handy, he admits.
Johnson remembers how the collective amazement of a hundred thousand people echoed across the stadium as he ran towards Kohli before being whisked away. He doesn’t know if Kohli heard him, or what he said in response. “I don’t quite remember what was happening. The situation was intoxicating, the crowd was so loud it was deafening.”
‘Don’t regret it one bit’
Following his arrest, Johnson spent three days in police remand. He remembers sleeping on the floor among ants and having his phone, passport and other belongings taken away. Cops questioned him throughout the day, some were polite while others were stern, he adds.
“A couple of days in detention is obviously nothing compared to what people in Palestine go through. I don’t regret my decision one bit,” he tells ThePrint.
Johnson also says that the police asked him if he received any inducements from any international organisation or terrorist group to invade the pitch that day. They also asked him several questions over the Israel-Palestine conflict, he adds. “I know about the conflict there, just not in academic detail. They were asking me incisive questions to throw me off.”
Police officers had earlier told ThePrint that Johnson’s knowledge of the conflict he wished to so strongly support wasn’t adequate, and that he was suffering from mental health issues. Johnson admits that he takes medicines to limit symptoms of schizophrenia.
“I do take medicines to keep symptoms (of schizophrenia) in check, but that has no bearing on my support for Palestine,” he says.
Johnson has been estranged from his family for years. The only person in his family he has been in touch with is one of his sisters.
For now, he’s glad that the people of Ahmedabad “love him”.
“After they lost the game, I thought I might be blamed for it. But my message is strong, and that’s evident from the love of people here,” he says.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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