MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A self-described Nazi became the first person in Australia to be sentenced to prison for performing an outlawed salute when he was ordered by a magistrate on Friday to spend one month behind bars.
Jacob Hersant, 25, is also the first person in Victoria state to be convicted of giving the Nazi salute. The gesture has been outlawed nationwide since he committed the offense.
He was convicted in the Melbourne Magistrates Court last month of performing the straight-armed salute before news cameras outside the Victoria County Court on Oct. 27, 2023. Hersant had then just avoided a prison sentence for causing violent disorder. The Nazi salute had been outlawed by the state parliament days earlier.
Magistrate Brett Sonnet allowed Hersant to remain free on bail after he was convicted, until Friday, when he was sentenced to one month in prison.
But Hersant spent only an hour in custody before his lawyer, Tim Smartt, succeeded in a bail application after lodging an appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Hersant faced a potential maximum sentence of 12 months in prison plus a 24,000 Australian dollar ($16,025) fine.
Smartt said Hersant should not be jailed for a nonviolent act.
“It’s not justified sending a 25-year-old to prison. That is wrong,” Smartt told the magistrate.
Sonnet said a prison sentence was appropriate.
“If there was physical violence, then I would have imposed a sentence close to the maximum penalty,” Sonnet said. “The accused sought to promote Nazi ideology in the public arena and the court is satisfied he took advantage of the media to disseminate extreme political views.”
Hersant was a member of the National Socialist Network, an organization that promoted white supremacy, deportation of immigrants and far-right actors, Sonnet said.
While performing the salute last year, he praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and said, “Australia for the white man.”
Sonnet said his words were “clearly racist and seek to promote white supremacy in Australia.”
“Put bluntly, the white man is not superior to any other race of people,” Sonnet said.
Hersant’s lawyers had argued that his comments and salute were protected by an implied constitutional freedom of political communication.
On his way into court on Friday, Hersant maintained he had a right to express his political views.
“We’re going to argue that the law is constitutionally invalid and it’s emotional and it’s anti-white,” Hersant told reporters. “It’s my political view and I think it’s a good fight for us to have an argument in court saying these laws are invalid.”
Three men were convicted in June of giving the salute at a Sydney soccer game. Another three men were convicted last month of making the gesture outside the Sydney Jewish Museum. All were punished with fines.
Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich, a leading opponent of antisemitism in Australia, said Hersant's prison sentence should remind Nazi sympathizers that Australia shows “no mercy to those who bring symbols of terror to our streets."
“This isn’t just a sentence — it’s a national roar that symbols of Nazism have no place on our soil,” Abramovich told reporters outside court.
CORRECTS TO JACOB HERSANT, NOT TIM SMARTT - Jacob Hersant speaks outside the Melbourne Magistrates' Court in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, before his is sentenced after he was convicted for performing the Nazi salute. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)
Tim Smartt, the lawyer for Jacob Hersant, arrives at Melbourne Magistrates Court in Melbourne, Australia, Nov. 8, 2024, for Hersant's sentencing after he was convicted for performing the Nazi salute. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Finnish authorities detained a ship linked to neighboring Russia as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables, police said, in the latest incident involving disruption of key infrastructure in the region.
Finnish police and border guards boarded the vessel, the Eagle S, early Thursday and took over the command bridge, Helsinki Police Chief Jari Liukku told a news conference. The vessel was being held in Finnish territorial waters, police said.
The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands, but was described by Finnish customs officials and the European Union's executive commission as part of Russia's shadow fleet of fuel tankers. Those are aging vessels with obscure ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions amid the war in Ukraine and operating without Western-regulated insurance. Russia's use of the vessels has raised environmental concerns about accidents given their age and uncertain insurance coverage.
The Eagle S's anchor is suspected of causing damage to the cable, Yle television reported, relying on police statements.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said in a statement that the incident was “the latest in a series of suspected attacks on critical infrastructure” and commended the Finnish authorities “for their swift action in boarding the suspected vessel."
The ship “is part of Russia’s shadow fleet, which threatens security and the environment, while funding Russia’s war budget,” said Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister. "We will propose further measures, including sanctions, to target this fleet.”
The Estlink-2 power cable, which brings electricity from Finland to Estonia across the Baltic Sea, went down on Wednesday. The incident follows damage to two data cables and the Nord Stream gas pipelines, both of which have been termed sabotage.
The Estonian government met in emergency session over the incident. The shadow tankers “are helping Russia to earn funds that will aid Russian hybrid attacks,” Prime Minister Kristen Michal said at a news conference. “We need to improve the monitoring and protection of critical infrastructure both on land and on sea.”
He said repairs to the cable could take as long as seven months.
“Repeated damage to Baltic Sea infrastructure signals a systemic threat, not mere accidents,” Estonia's President Alar Karis said on X. “Estonia will take action to counter this threat, together with Finland and other NATO allies.”
Two data cables — one running between Finland and Germany and the other between Lithuania and Sweden — were severed in November. Germany’s defense minister said officials had to assume the incident was “sabotage,” but he didn't provide evidence or say who might have been responsible. The remark came during a speech in which he discussed hybrid warfare threats from Russia.
The Nord Stream pipelines that once brought natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. Authorities have said the cause was sabotage and launched criminal investigations.
Estonian network operator Elering says there is enough spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side, public broadcaster ERR said on its website.
This photo provided by Rajavartiosto (Finnish Border Guard) on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, shows the oil tanker Eagle S at sea outside Porkkalanniemi, Finland. The Eagle S was sailing at the same time in the area where the Finland-Estonia electrical link was disrupted on Wednesday. (Rajavartiosto via AP)
This photo provided by Rajavartiosto (Finnish Border Guard) on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, shows the oil tanker Eagle S, background, and the Finnish Border Guard ship Turva at sea outside Porkkalanniemi, Finland. The Eagle S was sailing at the same time in the area where the Finland-Estonia electrical link was disrupted on Wednesday. (Rajavartiosto via AP)
FILE - Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo attends a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, as police investigating the electricity transmission between Finland and Estonia through the Estlink 2 connection which was cut on Christmas Day, according to Finnish grid operator Fingrid. (Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva via AP)
Finnish National Police Comissioner Ilkka Koskim'ki attends a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, investigating the electricity transmission between Finland and Estonia through the Estlink 2 connection which was cut on Christmas Day, according to Finnish grid operator Fingrid. (Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva via AP)
