Man charged with making nazi salute at trans rights rally

A man has been charged as Australian states crackdown on Nazi salutes and symbols.

A 20-year-old man stepped out in front of a transgender pride march in Sydney on Saturday, allgedly flashing a fascist salute at the crowd before being arrested.

Police will allege the man also made threatening remarks.

He received bail and will be in court in January, facing charges of knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol without excuse and making a gesture in a public place that is a Nazi salute.

He momentarily interrupted a march marking “Trans Day of Resistance”, as demonstrators walked through Sydney’s Camperdown.

The marchers were voicing demands for an end to police stripsearching queer and trans people.

The ralliers also want trans and queer people to not be held in immigration detention or deported to nations “where they will be in mortal danger”.

Protesters were also calling for students and workers to not be fired or expelled because of their own orientation or identity, and better housing and workplace protections for people who in the past had worked as sex workers.

NSW has a permit system for public demonstrations, and police were prepared for counter-protesters at the event.

Footage shows police walking alongside a small group of protesters, and police cars following the procession.

The 20-year-old who was charged after the incident is scheduled to appear in the Newtown Local Court on January 14.

This is just the latest in a string of Nazi-related incidents in Australia in recent times.

Last month Daniel Muston, 41, Ryan Peter Marshall, 31, and Anthony Raymond Mitchell, 32, were convicted for the “heil Hitler” salutes they performed outside Sydney Jewish Museum.

Laws criminalising Nazi symbols passed the NSW parliament in 2022.

Three men, who did not know each other but all happened to be of Croatian heritage, were convicted of performing a Nazi salute at a soccer match in Sydney in 2022. This week, the guilty verdicts for two of the men were overturned.

All three men had argued their symbols were not linked to fascism but instead were Croatian gestures.

Victoria passed similar Nazi-banning legislation in 2023. Proud neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant, 25, performed a version of a Nazi salute in front of news cameras on the steps of the County Court in the days after the new laws took effect.

In October a magistrate heard Hersant’s lawyer argue the Nazi salute was a legitimate form of political expression; Magistrate Brett Sonnet found Hersant guilty. Hersant was granted appeal bail.

He made the white supremacy salute after just escaping jail time on a violent disorder charge after a group of 25 men, mostly masked, attacked a group of hikers in a state park outside Melbourne.

In another separate incident, well-known Sydney restaurant owner Alan Yazbek was found guilty of displaying a Nazi symbol at a pro-Palestinian rally and is due to be sentenced in December.

The 56-year-old brandished a sign at the rally which mimicked the Israeli flag, but replaced the Star of David with a swastika and read “stop Nazi Israel”.