By Erin Pearson
The first Victorian charged with performing the Nazi salute has been found guilty after a magistrate rejected his argument that the case was constitutionally invalid.
Magistrate Brett Sonnet shot down 25-year-old Jacob Hersant’s bid for immunity after he was captured on news cameras performing a version of the Nazi salute outside the County Court just days after legislation banning the act took effect.
Jacob Hersant outside Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.Credit: Eddie Jim
“Australia for the white man, heil Hitler, heil Hitler,” Hersant was captured saying after the act.
Outside court, an unrepentant Hersant vowed to continue performing the Nazi salute, and told the media he was prepared to go to jail to further his political views.
Hersant said he felt no regret or shame for performing the salute in public, and revealed he performed the gesture at home every day. He also flagged the possibility of an appeal against his conviction.
“I don’t feel shame for giving a political salute, no. Those are my beliefs. I am a national socialist, I will remain a national socialist,” Hersant said.
“I’ll still continue to give the salute … hopefully police officers won’t see it.”
Hersant was the first Victorian charged with performing a Nazi salute, six days after it was outlawed in October 2023, in a test case for the new legislation.
Hersant fronted Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday where Sonnet found he had performed the act with the requisite intention.
During the hearing, the Nazi salute was compared to hailing a taxi or raising a hand in a classroom by lawyers.
Hersant is the first person in Victoria convicted of making a Nazi salute.Credit: Eddie Jim
Defence lawyer Timothy Smartt has argued the offence was constitutionally invalid as the Nazi salute was a legitimate form of political expression.
Sonnet found Hersant performed the Nazi gesture or an act that resembled it, intentionally, and altered the gesture in an attempt to avoid a criminal charge.
Sonnet said the legislation banning the act was legally valid and designed to protect minority groups from harm.
He said the salute was intertwined with Nazi ideology and its banning was compatible with the constitution.
Hersant (left) speaks to the media outside court after his conviction.Credit: Eddie Jim
Others in court included lawyers for police and the Victorian attorney-general’s office.
Hersant, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, sat in the front row of the courtroom on Tuesday next to his mother.
Other men have since been charged with the same offence, including neo-Nazi Nathan Bull, who is accused of performing the Nazi salute at Carlton’s Cinema Nova on March 9.
During a hearing for Bull last month, the court heard the future of his prosecution would likely ride on the magistrate’s decision in Hersant’s case.
In June, a NSW magistrate convicted three Croatian soccer fans who made a Nazi salute during the 2022 Australia Cup final.
Magistrate Joy Boulos found beyond reasonable doubt that the three men had “deliberately and intentionally” performed the Nazi salute in rejecting their arguments the hand gesture was a symbol of Croatian national pride.
The men were each fined $500 and convicted after being found guilty of one count of publicly displaying a Nazi symbol without reasonable excuse.
Premier Jacinta Allan, speaking from a school in Mount Waverley as Sonnet’s judgment was handed down, said Hersant’s conviction demonstrated that her government and the entire parliament had taken “very, very strong action” to outlaw the Nazi salute.
“It should be prosecuted. It has been. We have the powers and tools here in Victoria to stamp out that hateful behaviour,” Allan said.
Dvir Abramovich, the chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said the magistrate’s decision was a “historic and thundering day for justice and decency”.
“I am moved beyond words and filled with a profound sense of relief. Today, Victoria shines a little brighter,” Abramovich said.
“This is not just a legal victory – it is a moral triumph that belongs to every individual who has suffered under the weight of oppression, and it belongs to every person who has ever felt threatened and targeted by this vile display of hate.”
In Victoria, the offence carries maximum penalties of more than $23,000 or 12 months’ jail, or both, for anyone who intentionally displays or performs a Nazi symbol or gesture in public.
Hersant is yet to be sentenced and will return to court on Wednesday.
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