Neo-Nazi convicted in Melbourne: First Victorian convicted of Nazi salute feels no shame, mulls appeal

Jacob Hersant said he did not feel shame for performing the salute. Photo / ABC

The first Victorian found guilty of carrying out the Nazi salute says he doesn’t feel shame and intends to continue performing the gesture.

Magistrate Brett Sonnet on Tuesday found neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant, 25, intentionally performed the salute on October 27, 2023, about six days after Victorian laws banning the gesture came into effect.

Video played to Melbourne Magistrates Court showed Hersant raising his arm to salute 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 sieg heil 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.

He 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 A$23,000.

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.

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.”

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 swastika came into effect in January 2024.

In June, three men were convicted over performing Nazi salutes during a football match at Parramatta in NSW in October, 2022, and have since launched an appeal.

The legal ban prevents harmful, intimidating actions in public but it’s inevitable some people will find a way to circumvent the rules, according to Monash University’s David Slucki from the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation.

“They’ll come up with new symbols, variations on the symbols, they’ll come up with new ways of identifying one another,” Associate Professor Slucki told AAP.

“But there is also something comforting about knowing that at least it’s harder now to have groups of neo-Nazis walking down street doing their salute without consequence.”