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Family Food Fight contestant arrested at lockdown protest

Fanos Panayides was one of two organisers arrested at a Melbourne protest on Sunday.

Former Family Food Fight contestant Fanos Panayides was arrested at a lockdown protest in Melbourne yesterday.

Panayides, who featured in Season 1 in 2017 was one of two organisers arrested at the Spring Street protest, making it onto Nine for very different reasons this time. Dozens of people were protesting coronavirus social distancing restrictions, vaccination and 5G mobile technology.

Arrested by police as he tried to find a verse from the Bible on his mobile phone, he later posted a video of himself on the train saying “innocent people were being arrested”.

“I don’t have a problem with what the cops do – I never did – I just have a problem with who they do it for,” he said.

“I sat in the back of a [police] van for the first time in my life. It was quite a surreal feeling. Because I didn’t fight back the police were quite respectful in terms of not causing me any harm. I didn’t give them any reasons to detain me other than being guilty of a summary offence.

“Yeah, it was pretty interesting when I was trying to say that part out of Revelations about the microchip is when they came and grabbed me.”

Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos called the protest “incredibly disappointing” while Premier Daniel Andrews announced first relaxation changes today.

Security Guard trainer Fanos and his Greek Cypriot family came third in Family Food Fight.

Source: The Guardian