A man found guilty in Australia for violating a law passed last year prohibiting public use of the Nazi salute will go to prison for an undetermined length of time.
Following his conviction on Tuesday, Jacob Hersant, 25, learned at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday that he would spend time in jail, though Magistrate Brett Sonnet still must decide for how long. The self-described neo-Nazi will remain on bail until another hearing on Nov. 8.
Hersant, the first Australian convicted under the new law, said after the guilty verdict: “I do give the Nazi salute, and I am a Nazi.” He performed the gesture in front of news cameras at a Victoria County Court on Oct. 27, 2023, where he had appeared on a different charge.
Sonnet could impose a sentence as high as one year with a fine of 24,000 Australian dollars (about $16,000); however, on Wednesday he said he intended a “relatively modest term of imprisonment.”
Hersant said during a lunch recess from court proceedings that “I regret nothing” and “I’m prepared to go to jail for my beliefs.”
