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Activist Drew Pavlou protested at the Wimbledon tennis tournament on Friday.
According to his own statements, he was thrown out of the stadium at the final on Sunday by security forces.
Photo: Zac Goodwin / dpa
An activist with a message in support of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai says he was removed from the stands at Center Court during Novak Djokovic's final victory at Wimbledon.
Drew Pavlou said he shouted "Where's Peng Shuai?", held up a sign with that message, and was then thrown out of the stadium.
"I didn't want to disrupt the game, so I waited until there was a break," Australian Pavlou told the AP news agency.
He brought the sign to the facility in his shoe.
According to him, he was taken to the ground by a security guard and then removed from the public area.
He had to leave the facility.
Pavlou said on Twitter that security forces had thrown him down the stairs head first.
One of the security guards pressed his head against a wall.
The All England Club, as organizers, stated that Pavlou had disrupted the game by shouting and ran down the stairs.
Peng's case moved the world for months after she accused a senior Chinese politician of sexual abuse on the social network Weibo last November.
The post was deleted soon after.
The state censorship had also blocked any debate on the Chinese Internet about it.
Since then, athletes, politicians and human rights activists have expressed their concern.
Peng later denied making the allegations.
During the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, she met IOC President Thomas Bach for an interview, and has not been seen since.
Peng has won two Grand Slam titles in doubles, including Wimbledon in 2013.
The women's tennis professional organization WTA has canceled all tournaments in China due to the situation surrounding Peng.
Four activists wearing T-shirts in support of Peng Shuai were briefly stopped by security personnel in Wimbledon.
They had to have the contents of their backpacks checked last Monday.
After the search, the quartet was allowed to continue with the shirts through the facility.
ara/dpa
