of course you can blow up someone near a freeport. - its not a rule, its a guideline for a better understanding between you and the zoners. - however, if you ignore the little "advice" called a freeport rule - you ll soon see you into trouble when you next want to purchase the latest gimmick - like cap 8 armour, supernovas etc... cause its either zoner bases or order ally bases that sell that stuff.
so for the average guy, - being on at least neutral terms with zoners is beneficial. - if he upsets zoners, docking at their stations is as ooRP as docking at manhatten when you re a hacker.
either way, much ado about nothing... the player in question is violating the rules anyway, if he indeed was a freelancer in a battleship.... . a quite report would have done the job much better than writing it up here.