Victorian man who performed public Nazi salute jailed for one month

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A white supremacist in Victoria has been sentenced to a month in prison for making a nazi salute outside a court last year. The neo-Nazi is the first person to be convicted of the offence and will appeal the sentence.

Transcript

00:00Jacob Hassant was released from custody after making a last-ditch bid for freedom.

00:08The fact that I've been sentenced to a month in prison for a political gesture is just

00:13farcical.

00:14It was this action last year that was ruled an illegal act of hate speech.

00:23The white man is not superior to any other race of people, Brett Sonnett said today.

00:28This court denounces the Nazi ideology in absolute terms.

00:32Hassant's one-month jail sentence hasn't begun.

00:35He was freed on bail until he appeals in the county court.

00:39One month is a severe punishment by any measure, however the potential penalties were far greater.

00:45We're talking 12 months imprisonment, $24,000 worth of fines.

00:50This appeal is a desperate attempt by Hassant to dodge responsibility.

00:55The 25-year-old is the first Victorian prosecuted under laws brought in last year, banning public

01:01Nazi salutes.

01:02Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are an evolving threat and every day that they spend walking

01:09our streets with evil in their hearts is a desecration of what we stand for.

01:14In recent weeks, Hassant and other National Socialist Network members have clashed with

01:19police.

01:22One of its leaders, Thomas Sewell, has a history of violence and is facing charges

01:26of intimidating a police officer.

01:29Their program is inherently violent and extremist and really based on the idea that people of

01:36colour, women, LGBTIQ communities, the disabled, others have no place in their own country.

01:42Hassant's appeal is likely to take place next year.

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