Credit: Con Chronis/AAP
An Australian court sentenced neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant to one month in prison for giving the Nazi salute in public, the first custodial sentence for this offense in the country, judicial sources said. The sentence imposed by a Melbourne Magistrates Court judge is minimal compared to the maximum sentence of one year in prison and fines of more than 16,000 US dollars (14,832 euros) under the laws of the Australian state of Victoria, where the trial occurred.
Hersant, 25, was spotted making the gesture outside another Melbourne courthouse on October 27, 2023, about six days after the law banning Nazi salutes in Victoria came into force. At the time, he said on television cameras: “Australia for the white man, Heil Hitler.”
The Victorian government proposed the law banning the Nazi salute after a group of people marching through the streets of Melbourne in March 2023 made the gesture as part of clashes between protesters for and against transgender rights outside state parliament. . After banning the gesture in several states, Australia criminalized the Nazi salute in public at the national level earlier this year, with a prison sentence of up to 12 months.
