A court in the Australian state of Victoria has convicted supremacist Jacob Hersant on Friday. to one month in prison for making the Nazi salute in public. It is the first custodial sentence for this offense in the Oceanic country, according to judicial sources.
The sentence imposed by a Melbourne City Magistrates Court judge is minimal compared to the maximum penalty of one year in jail and fines of more than US$16,000 (14,832 euros) under the laws of the Australian state of Victoria, where the trial took place.
The legal defense of this 25-year-old Australian neo-Naziwho is the first person to be convicted in Victoria for making the Nazi salute, is considering appealing the decision, a spokeswoman for the Victorian Magistrates Court added.
Hersant was caught making the Nazi salute outside another court in Melbourne, where he appeared for another matter, on October 27, 2023, about six days after the law outlawing Nazi salutes in Victoria came into force.
At the time, he said in front of television cameras “I almost did it, now it’s illegal?” and then added. “Australia for the white man, Heil Hitler.”
Hersant’s defense asserted during the court proceedings that this extremist did not perform the Nazi salute and argued that, even if he had, the charge was constitutionally invalid because such a gesture involves a legitimate form of political expression.
The outlawing of the Nazi salute in Australia.
Victorian Government proposed law to outlaw the Nazi salute. after a group of people marching through the streets of Melbourne in March 2023 made the gesture, as part of heated encounters between pro- and anti-transgender rights protesters outside the state Parliament.
In New South Wales, where the Nazi salute will also be outlawed in 2022, a court sentenced three men last June to pay fines of about US$338 (308 euros) each for making the gesture during a match in western Sydney.
After having done so several states, Australia criminalized nationwide earlier this year the Nazi salute in publicas well as those who display or market Nazi symbols such as flags or insignia of the Third Reich or glorify acts of terrorism and supremacist hatred, with a jail sentence of up to 12 months.