Jacob Hersant (R) arriving at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday where he was sentenced to a month in prison for performing an illegal Nazi salute in public a year ago. The maximum prison sentence for the offense is 1 year. Photo by Joel Carrett/EPA-EFE
Nov. 8 (UPI) — A court in Melbourne, Australia, sentenced a local man to 30 days in prison Friday after becoming the first person in the state of Victoria to be found guilty of making an illegal Nazi salute but set him free on bail, pending an appeal.
High-profile White supremacist and member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network, Jacob Hersant was convicted of making the salute to the press in front of the county court in October 2023 just days after the state legislature passed laws banning people from making the gesture in public.
Melbourne Magistrates Court also heard that Hersant, 25, uttered the slogan: “Australia for the White man, heil Hitler.”
Sentencing Hersant to a prison term, Magistrate Brett Sonnett said he did not believe a fine would serve as an adequate deterrent to Hersant re-offending.
Hersant had continued to post racist content online since being found guilty in October and travel to neo-Nazi rallies, some of which turned violent.
“The White man is not superior to any other race of people,” said Sonnett. “You took advantage of the media to disseminate extreme political views.”
Hersant’s legal team attempted to mount a defense arguing that the laws were unconstitutional and that the gesture he made did not constitute a Nazi salute.
The offense took place as Hersant left the county court in central Melbourne after being sentenced to 200 hours of community service for a violent attack on six hikers in the state’s Cathedral Ranges in 2021 on the condition he did not commit any offense punishable by a prison term for the next 14 months.
Prior to that in early 2021, he racially abused a black security guard at a network TV station in Melbourne before an accomplice assaulted the victim.
Lawyer Tim Smartt said his client would appeal in the county court against the conviction and his sentence.
Hersant’s prison sentence came after four men were arrested Thursday in a joint Counter Terrorism Command and North West Metropolitan Region operation targeting the National Socialist Network.
“With assistance from Stonnington Crime Investigation Unit, five search warrants were executed early this morning at residential addresses in North Melbourne, Point Cook, Baxter, Ashwood and Wantirna South as part of an investigation into a series of incidents,” Victoria Police said in a news release.
A 25-year-old man from North Melbourne, a 23-year-old from Baxter and a 21-year-old from Ashwood were interviewed by detectives on suspicion of “serious racial vilification and grossly offensive public conduct.”
All three were released pending a summons when it is expected they will be charged.
Police said the raids were in response to an incident of the evening of Oct. 31 in which a number of men, dressed in offensive clothing, verbally harassed two female members of the public in a retail store carpark southwest of downtown Melbourne.
As part of the day of action, detectives from the Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit working a separate case executed a simultaneous warrant in the eastern suburbs, arresting and charging a 31-year-old Wantirna South man with two counts of intimidating a police officer/family member in two separate incidents last months.
He was bailed to appear at Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on Feb. 18.
He was also questioned about an incident outside an embassy in Toorak in October where a national flag was burned following a protest outside the Chinese consulate.
Victoria Police said they took a zero-tolerance approach to any acts of “prejudice-motivated crime” or intimidation of police officers.
