Terrorism experts are sounding the alarm, warning sovereign citizens fuelled by online radicalisation are becoming a global threat.
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As the manhunt for accused cop killer Dezi Freeman edges up on six months, a Lowy Institute report released on Monday warns the transnational movement has grown "beyond a nuisance".
In late 2022, six people including two constables were fatally shot on a remote property in Wieambilla, in Queensland, in a police shoot-out that had the hallmarks of anti-government extremism.
The report found the once-fringe sovereign citizen movement had grown in strength in recent years - accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic - spreading to more than 25 countries and creating dangerous intersections with other conspiracy ideologies.
Report authors Lydia Khalil and Keiran Hardy said sovereign citizens had become "a national security challenge".
"Sovereign citizen ideology promotes a radical reframing of the relationship between citizen and state," the report said.
The three main threats they present are radicalisation to violence; terrorism, civil unrest, and plotting to overthrow government; and delegitimisation of the state.
The experts called for a more structured law enforcement and intelligence co-ordination strategy and a dedicated global database to track sovereign citizens.
They said social media platforms needed to monitor "harmful online content", noting most sovereign citizens first became exposed to the ideology via the internet.
"The current expansion of the sovereign citizen movement, as in other phases of the movement's growth history, is occurring during a period of growing inequality and global democratic decline," the report said.
Citing the case study of Freeman, the report argued the deaths of two Victorian police officers in a confrontation with the accused killer could not be seen in isolation from larger restive political dynamics in countries including the United States.
Freeman allegedly shot dead Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart as a team of police officers attempted to serve a warrant at his home in the small northeast Victorian town of Porepunkah in August.
Australian Associated Press
