Melbourne neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant jailed over Nazi salute outside court

Prominent Victorian neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant has become the first Australian to be jailed for making a Nazi salute.

The 26-year-old man performed the banned salute outside the Melbourne District Court on October 27, 2023, just days after laws banning the public display of Nazi symbols came into force in Victoria.

He raised his right arm in front of TV cameras and said; “Hi Hitler” and “Oh, I almost did it, it’s illegal now isn’t it?”.

The salute came minutes after he escaped jail for pleading guilty to a violent disorder charge related to his involvement in a group attack on hikers in Cathedral Range State Park in May 2021.

Hersant was the first person convicted of committing the prohibited act in Victoria and was sentenced to one month in prison in the Magistrates’ Court in November 2024.

However, he was released and has since been granted bail after appealing both his conviction and sentence in the District Court.

In December last year, Judge Simon Moglia rejected both of Hersant’s grounds of appeal – that it was not a Nazi salute and that laws banning the salute were unconstitutional – and found him guilty.

The judge found that although the freedom of political communication implied by Hersant was “effectively burdened” by the law because the salute was political in nature, the law was valid and imposed for a constitutionally legitimate purpose.

Hersant returned to District Court Wednesday afternoon for a plea hearing and sentencing.

His lawyer, Tim Smartt, appealed to Judge Moglia not to sentence his client, who was described in court as a “wonderful father” to his three-year-old son.

Mr. Smartt said that although he disagreed with Hersant’s political views, his parents remained supportive.

“People are much better than their worst actions,” Mr. Smartt said.

“(Hersant) is a much better person than 10 minutes into that video.”

Mr Smartt argued that Hersant was “provoked” by the media presence outside the court, but after receiving a light sentence he accepted that the salute was made with a degree of arrogance or arrogance.

The court was told that 18 cases had been filed across Australia for making illegal Nazi salutes and none had resulted in a prison sentence.

Mr. Smartt pointed out a few of these; There have been incidents that resulted in sentences of less than custodial sentences, including outside a synagogue on the Gold Coast, outside a Jewish museum and a bar in Perth.

“This is by far the harshest sentence in Australia,” he said of Hersant’s sentence.

Daniel Gurvich KC, for the Crown, argued Hersant’s offending was calculated to achieve maximum effect and that he had “contempt for the law”.

Sentencing Hersant, Judge Moglia said the salute was made with full appreciation that it was unlawful and in the context of his recent conviction for a “very appalling” and “violent” incident.

“I accept that he relished the opportunity… conscious that this was being done in a realistic manner, not just in front of a few people, but in the presence of the wider community,” the judge said.

Judge Moglia described the context as “humiliating” and intended to send “a chilling message to society”.

Hersant was sentenced to one month in prison and fined $1,000 for breaching a community corrections order by saluting.

He has repeatedly described himself as a Nazi and was a leading figure in the National Socialist Network until the neo-Nazi group claimed it was disbanding last month to avoid new hate group legislation from the federal government.

Hersant stated that he intends to take the case to the Supreme Court.