{"id":439829,"date":"2026-01-27T03:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439829\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T03:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:11:11","slug":"brandan-koschel-denied-bail-over-alleged-hate-speech-at-march-for-australia-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439829\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandan Koschel denied bail over alleged hate speech at March for Australia rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man charged with inciting hatred through an antisemitic speech at a March for Australia anti-immigration rally in Sydney has been denied bail after police argued he poses a risk to community safety.<\/p>\n

Brandan Koschel appeared via audio-visual link before a virtual court from Surry Hills Police Centre, a day after he was arrested at the March for Australia event at Moore Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old has been charged with publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race causing fear after he made comments at an open mic session at the rally.<\/p>\n

Police on Tuesday opposed his release on bail, citing the risk of committing further offences and endangering the safety of the community.<\/p>\n

The police prosecutor said the “reprehensible” antisemitic speech was performed on a PA but had “far greater reach” due to its dissemination on YouTube and X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n

He said the case was “very strong” due to the public nature of the alleged offending, describing the speech as a “brazen and public incitement of hatred towards the Jewish community”.<\/p>\n

\"March<\/p>\n

Hundreds attended a March for Australia rally in Sydney, marching from Prince Alfred Park to Moore Park.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Police allege links to disbanded neo-Nazi group<\/p>\n

According to the police statement of alleged facts referred to in court, police believe Mr Koschel was a member of the recently disbanded neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network (NSN).<\/p>\n

Magistrate Daniel Covington asked what information police had about his alleged membership.<\/p>\n

“The facts cite preliminary investigations suggest he was with other known associates of NSN,” the police prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

“(And) the fact he was wearing the black shirt with the white Celtic cross.”<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said Mr Koschel had also made comments in his speech including “free Joel Davis” and “heil white Australia”.<\/p>\n

He told the court there was also “open source information” which suggested Mr Koschel was a member of the NSN.<\/p>\n

Mr Davis, a neo-Nazi figure, has been denied bail three times<\/a> after allegedly directing followers to “rhetorically rape” Wentworth MP Allegra Spender.<\/p>\n

Jasmine Lau, representing Mr Koschel, highlighted that the NSN had openly stated it was disbanding.<\/p>\n

“There are no allegations he has any ongoing affiliations with any active groups,” she said.\"A<\/p>\n

The remarks were allegedly made during an open mic session at the demonstration.\u00a0 (ABC News: Simon Amery)<\/p>\n

She said he had a “very limited” criminal record that dated back some nine years and did not involve any hate speech offences.<\/p>\n

Ms Lau suggested any risk of her client being granted bail could be mitigated through conditions including regular reporting to police and a ban on attending any public rallies, in addition to a social media ban if the court believed it was appropriate.<\/p>\n

Ms Lau also submitted that he went to the event alone and did not speak with anyone else there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said her client had told her the symbol on his shirt was not an NSN symbol.<\/p>\n

She argued the charge was “unlikely” to cross a threshold that would require Mr Koschel to serve a prison sentence if he is ultimately found guilty.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Covington denied Mr Koschel bail after weighing up factors including the police material, the limited criminal history, the strength of the prosecution case and the proposed conditions.<\/p>\n

He said it was a “difficult” application to determine because of Mr Koschel’s limited criminal history and the fact he had no history of non-compliance with conditions.<\/p>\n

“On the other hand, it’s a serious set of facts alleged to have occurred in a situation where the community generally is very acute to comments of this nature being made,” the magistrate said.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Covington said it was difficult to determine what conditions might mitigate any risk, because there was no evidence of any specific names or non-association elements that should form part of them.<\/p>\n

His case will return to court in early February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man charged with inciting hatred through an antisemitic speech at a March for Australia anti-immigration rally in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,17192,1108,29180,50561,81784,78249,44,170118,2647,26293],"class_list":["post-439829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bail","tag-court","tag-hate-speech","tag-march-for-australia","tag-national-socialist-network","tag-neo-nazi","tag-news","tag-nsn","tag-protest","tag-rally"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}