An Australian court sentenced the supremacist this Friday Jacob Hersant to one month in prison for doing the nazi salute in public, in the first sanction of deprivation of liberty for this crime in the oceanic country.
The judge Brett Sonnetof the Magistrates Court of the city of Melbournehas ruled that “in Australiaas in most liberal democratic countries in the world, the freedom of expression It is not an absolute concept. (Therefore), limitations on freedom are justified to protect the common good of the people of a State”, according to the transcript of the ruling.
The magistrate has also informed the condemned man that “the ‘white man’ is not superior to any other race.” Hersant faced a maximum sentence of one year in jail and fines of more than 16,000 US dollars (14,832 euros) contemplated by the laws of the Australian state of Victoria, where the process took place.
The legal defense of this 25-year-old Australian neo-Naziwho is the first person to be found guilty in the state of Victoria for do the Nazi salute, consider appealing the decision, added a spokeswoman for the Victorian Magistrates Court.
Hersant was caught giving the Nazi salute outside another court in Melbournewhere he appeared on another matter, on October 27, 2023, about six days after the law making Nazi salutes illegal 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, Hey Hitler“.
Hersant’s defense has assured during the judicial process that this extremist did not perform the Nazi salute and has argued that, even if he had done so, the accusation was constitutionally invalid because this gesture represents a legitimate form of political expression.
The Victorian Government proposed the law to outlaw the Nazi salute after in March 2023 a group of people who marched through the streets of Melbourne made this gesture, within the framework of heated encounters between protesters for and against transgender rights outside the state Parliament.
In New South Wales, where the Nazi salute was also made illegal in 2022, a court sentenced three men last June to pay fines of around US$338 (€308) for making this gesture during a match in western Sydney. .
After having done so in several states, Australia criminalized at the national level at the beginning of the year the Nazi salute in public, as well as those who display or market Nazi symbols such as flags or insignia of the Third Reich or glorify terrorist acts and supremacist hatred, with a penalty imprisonment of up to 12 months.
#Australia #imposes #jail #sentence #time #giving #Nazi #salute #public
