Injured Ex-Greens candidate falsely accused of faking eye wound
By Soofia Tariq in Sydney
WHAT WAS CLAIMED : A protester claims her right eye was injured by police when, in fact, some photos show the injury to her left eye.
OUR VERDICT : False. The injury is to her right eye. Photos showing the injury to her left eye are the result of the image being flipped by her phone's selfie camera.
Images of a former Greens candidate following her arrest at a protest do not show injuries to both her left and right eyes, despite false claims on social media.
The claim is being used to imply Hannah Thomas is faking the injury, which she says resulted from her "interactions" with NSW Police at a June 4 protest in Sydney.
The visual injury is to her right eye only. A selfie image appears to show the injury is to her left eye, but this is due to the image being inverted by her front-facing camera.
Ms Thomas, who stood against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his Grayndler seat at the 2025 federal election, was injured during a protest in southwest Sydney.
She was among around 60 others who protested outside a manufacturing facility, which they claim is supplying components for Israeli fighter jets.
She has since undergone surgery and said she may lose vision in her right eye.
NSW Police charged Ms Thomas with hindering or resisting a police officer and refusing to comply with a direction to disperse.
The force has since declared a critical incident over the injuries she sustained.
"I see one obvious problem with the injury sustained in this photo," one Facebook post reads.
"Now if her right eye was potentially blinded in the police arrest she would have been totally blind the night of the incident as the left eye is fully closed.
"But she's using her right eye fully open to stare directly at the camera. That's nearly impossible if your right eye is damaged to the extent you can lose your sight, the photo shows her in ambulance as well.
"So what happened to her left eye, it is damaged fully closed and bleeding but her claim now is right eyes is damaged and she could lose vision in the apparently undamaged eye."
The author added: "It's like trying to work out what's true and a lie at an Albanese press conference."
"Calling BULL," another user posted. "In the pics her damaged eye is suddenly on the other side!"
Videos and images taken by others of Ms Thomas in the aftermath of her arrest clearly show the damage is to her right eye.
However, a photograph taken by Ms Thomas in an ambulance appears to show the injury to her left eye.
Rather than anything untoward, this is because selfie images on many phones are flipped when using the front-facing camera.
This is explained in an article by the online video-making website Klip.
Visual clues confirm this to be the case with Ms Thomas's photo.
Other images taken by photographers show a small mole on the right side of her chin, thus identifying the right side of Ms Thomas's face.
In the flipped images, this mole appears on the left side of her chin, on the same side as the eye injury.
Likewise, in standard images, two small freckles can be seen on the left side of her face near her nose.
But these appear on the right side of her face in the flipped image, on the opposite side to her injury.
AAP FactCheck previously debunked a similar claim relating to a Palestinian photojournalist in 2024.
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