A student activist at La Trobe University in Melbourne is facing expulsion for his involvement in the Palestine solidarity campaign.

The victimisation of individual students for engaging in political activism on campus is a serious threat, and not just to the right of those students to pursue their studies. It is designed to intimidate any student out of standing up for their political beliefs if they do not concur with the views of the university administration or the government.

Ryan Higginson, a Socialist Alternative member and La Trobe student, received a letter on 1 September from Richard Frampton, the general misconduct officer of the university, demanding that he attend a hearing to consider allegations of misconduct made by a member of the Student Union council, Jessica Cornish.

The charges against Higginson are flimsy claims of personal harassment and intimidation. They revolve around a poster that highlighted a vote on the Student Union Council. Council members had voted against a resolution opposing the Israeli war on Gaza.

Similar allegations have been made against left wing students at campuses across the country this year. According to Sarah Garnham, education officer at the National Union of Students, “Right wing student groups across the country have pursued a coordinated strategy of lodging false and malicious complaints against student activists. Unwilling to debate the issues on their merits, they have resorted to lies and slander that risk the academic future of students who are the victims of such claims.”

Adding fuel to the flames is the disgraceful repetition of these accusations in the corporate press. The Australian has run a series of articles this year uncritically repeating slanders against Socialist Alternative by right wing students.

When such claims are dismissed after university investigations – as happened most recently regarding the charges against Socialist Alternative at ANU, which were the subject of two scurrilous articles by Christian Kerr in the Australian – the findings are simply not reported. The Australian also refused to print a response, submitted by Socialist Alternative, to a defamatory 29 August article written by education minister Christopher Pyne.

The basis of the allegations against Higginson is a 10-page submission made by law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, in which it demands the expulsion of Higginson and the suspension of two other students. Arnold Bloch Leibler is a notoriously right wing firm that has previously acted for Tony Abbott in a dispute with the CFMEU.

Mark Leibler, who wrote the submission against Higginson, is a senior partner at the firm. He is also a former head of the Zionist Federation of Australia. On top of that he is the current national chairman of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, and the governor of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

The involvement of this firm gives the lie to any idea that this trial is about personal disputes between students. It is nothing short of a highly politicised witch-hunt.

Arnold Bloch Leibler is also closely connected with the La Trobe University administration. In 2008, the head of its public interest law practice, Peter Seidel, was appointed as an adjunct professor at the university’s School of Law.

This connection provides instructive context to the scandalous manner in which the university is conducting the trial. Higginson has been banned from having legal representation at the hearing. A “support” person may attend, but only on the condition that they have no legal training, and do not “make submissions or present evidence on [his] behalf, or in any other way act as [his] advocate”.

Higginson’s request to have the hearing adjourned has been abruptly rejected. He has virtually no time to put together a reply to the pages of evidence compiled by a top-tier law firm.

Kangaroo court is too polite a term for such a process. It is an outrage that a university has the gall to conduct itself with such flagrant disregard for natural justice and the right to a fair trial.

Expulsions of university students for political activism have been virtually unheard of in Australia since the Vietnam War era. It is incumbent on everyone who believes in free speech to speak out in opposition to this gross violation of basic rights.