A couple accused of refusing to wear masks are to plead "not guilty" when they appear in court.
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Sheridan Gill and Scott Kraus have become heroes of the anti-mask movement after they closed their Snowy Mountains organic café and shop when it was raided by police.
The couple run The Market in Jindabyne. Apart from organic food, it also sells artisan craftwork such as "beautiful locally hand-carved spoons by Snowy Mountains Spoon Carvers! Ethically made using naturally fallen wood."
But when police visited four times in the days up to July 2, officers found (according to the NSW government):
- staff and patrons not wearing face coverings,
- no signage relating to wearing face coverings or patron capacity,
- no QR code check-in outside or within the premises, and
- no COVID-19 sign in register able to be produced.
The couple are to argue in court that they both had medical exemptions that allowed them to go unmasked. They also allege that the police were heavy-handed.
Sheridan Gill wouldn't say for what reason her medical exemption was granted, nor how it had been obtained. She didn't say whether she had mentioned it at the time of the four police visits.
It was a matter of "privacy", she said.
"This has affected my life on every level. I feel targeted in my own community that I love - to the point where I am nervous to even leave the house," she said on a website which argues against lockdowns and which questions vaccination against COVID-19.
Some of the site's merchandise has the slogan "You can say no" above images of vaccination, masks and Covid tests.
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Ms Gill said she didn't want to be called "anti-vax" or "anti-mask" but preferred "pro-freedom".
She said she had been "absolutely terrified" by the police action.
"I spent two days worrying about our child alone or with strangers if they came for us. A thought I wouldn't wish on any mother," she said.
The anti-vax campaign organisation has taken up the cause of the Jindabyne couple, who are, as its website puts it, "willing to fight for their rights, for their staff and for their community to keep this much-needed business open". "They have engaged a law firm to take this all the way," it says.
The store was closed for a week after the arrests but has since reopened. Sheri Gill said the regulations were now being followed, but she remained adamant it was a matter of "freedom" whether to wear a mask. An employee was wearing one but others weren't, she said.
The couple are represented by the law and "public advocacy" firm of former senator Nick Xenophon and Mark Davis.
"These people are not seeking to martyr themselves to any cause, they simply want to conduct their business as they are rightfully entitled to do," Mr Davis said.
"These people both had exemptions, medical exemptions from wearing masks. Nevertheless, they were arrested, manhandled and taken back to the station, when they could have simply been issued a fine which they could rightly dispute."
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