White supremacist Jacob Hersant to involve nation’s top lawmakers in Nazi salute case
Jacob Hersant, a white supremacist who was first person to be charged with performing a Nazi salute in Victoria, plans to drag the nation’s top lawmakers into his legal case.
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A white supremacist who was first to be charged with performing a Nazi salute in Victoria plans to drag the nation’s top lawmakers into his legal case.
The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday heard neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant, 24, required an adjournment of his matter due to a related “constitutional argument”.
His lawyer, Sandra Gaunt, told the court her client intended to file notice of his argument with senior politicians, including Commonwealth Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and state Attorney General Jaclyn Symes.
The notice relates to section 78B of the Judiciary Act 1903 which “involves a matter arising under the Constitution or involving its interpretation”.
It states that it is the duty of the court not to proceed in the case until it is satisfied that notice of the matter has been given to the Commonwealth and state attorneys generals.
“They may seek to be an interested party,” Ms Gaunt told the court.
No further details of the constitutional argument were aired in court.
However at a previous hearing, Hersant told media outside court: “We should have free expression in this country. These laws are built on emotion and are anti-white”.
Hersant performed the Nazi salute in front of media outside the County Court in late October after he and Thomas Sewell, the self-proclaimed leader of the National Socialist Network, were sentenced over a violent clash with bushwalkers at Cathedral Range State Park in May 2021.
Both men pleaded guilty to violent disorder over the incident, in which three bushwalkers who filmed the men were terrorised.
Hersant was sentenced to three days’ prison time, already served, and ordered to perform 200 hours of community work.
Sewell was sentenced to one month and seven days’ imprisonment – time he also already served.
Afterwards, Hersant raised his hand in a salute, stating: “Heil Hitler”.
His gesture was made less than a week after Victoria’s Nazi salute laws came into effect.
In December, Hersant told media he was not remorseful for the action and continues to perform the gesture daily.
The matter will return to court on February 29.
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