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The first person found guilty of performing the in Victoria says he will continue to make the gesture every day, just not in front of police.
Magistrate Brett Sonnet on Tuesday found Jacob Hersant, 25, intentionally performed on 27 October 2023 — about six days after Victorian laws banning the gesture came into effect.
Video played at Melbourne Magistrates Court showed Hersant in front of journalists and camera crews outside the County Court.
He was then captured saying: “nearly did it — it’s illegal now” and “Australia for the white man, heil Hitler”, before walking away.
Hersant pleaded not guilty, claiming he did not perform the salute and, even if he did, the charge was constitutionally invalid as the gesture was a legitimate form of political expression.
But Sonnet found Hersant was guilty of performing a gesture that so nearly resembled a Nazi salute that it could have been viewed as such.
The magistrate said Hersant altered the way he raised his arm to avoid being charged but he still intended to perform the salute.
Sonnet also found the charge was legally valid, as it was introduced to protect minorities from harm and the salute was closely connected to Nazi ideology.
The magistrate’s full reasons, totalling 184 pages, will be published later this week.
Outside court, Hersant said he was a Nazi and he did not feel shame for performing the salute.
“I’ll still continue to give the salute but hopefully police officers don’t see it,” he told reporters.
Hersant said he was considering appealing the decision, noting his lawyer had argued he did not perform a “perfect” salute.
Hersant will return to Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning for a plea hearing ahead of his sentence.
The maximum penalty is 12 months’ jail or a fine of more than $23,000.
A “historic” day
Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said the verdict filled him with a profound sense of relief.
“This is a historic and thundering day for justice and decency,” Abramovich said.
“This verdict is a blow to the solar plexus of a resurgent and dangerous neo-Nazi movement in Australia.”
Hersant is the first person to be found guilty of performing the gesture in Victoria.
Premier Jacinta Allan said the court result demonstrated Victoria has the powers and tools to stamp out hateful behaviour.
“That sort of Nazi salute behaviour is utterly unacceptable,” she told reporters after the verdict.
“It should be prosecuted, it has been.”
In June, three men were convicted over performing the Nazi salutes during a football match at Parramatta in NSW in October 2022.
Nikola Marko Gasparovic, 46, Dominik Sieben, 25, and Marijan Lisica, 45, were each fined $500 after being found guilty of one count of publicly displaying a Nazi symbol without reasonable excuse and have since launched an appeal.
The three men did not know each other before being arrested.
NSW banned the display of Nazi symbols in 2022, before Tasmania and Victoria banned the Nazi salute in 2023.
A federal ban on performing the Nazi salute in public or displaying symbols such as the Nazi hakenkruez came into effect in January this year.