{"id":487483,"date":"2026-02-18T07:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487483\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T07:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:53:10","slug":"brandan-koschel-jailed-over-antisemitic-speech-at-sydney-australia-day-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487483\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandan Koschel jailed over antisemitic speech at Sydney Australia Day protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who delivered an antisemitic speech at a protest on Australia Day has been jailed, with a Sydney court hearing the term of imprisonment “must be used to deter others”.<\/p>\n

Brandan Koschel was charged with publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race causing fear after speaking during an open mic session at the anti-immigration gathering on January 26 at Moore Park.<\/p>\n

A statement of agreed facts in the case identified two sentences directed at the Jewish community, which constituted the offending.<\/p>\n

The 40-second speech received “cheers in response” and were “clearly antisemitic and vilified Jewish people”, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old pleaded guilty last week and his lawyer on Tuesday argued for him to be spared a custodial sentence.<\/p>\n

‘Motivated by hate’<\/p>\n

Deputy Chief Magistrate Sharon Freund on Wednesday said Koschel voluntarily speaking at a pre-organised event on a public holiday in front of several hundred people, meant he reasonably knew his words “could have resulted in the republication of his hate speech”.<\/p>\n

She said the words were “divisive” and were of the form “that incite people to further hate and sometimes \u2026 spur violence”.<\/p>\n

\"Brandan<\/p>\n

Koschel spoke for 40 seconds during an open mic session at the rally. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“In this case it is clear Mr Koschel’s offending was motivated by hate and prejudice,” she said.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Freund noted how “vulnerable” the Jewish community was in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack and the uptick of antisemitism in Sydney preceding it.<\/p>\n

“The Jewish community were the clear and unequivocal target \u2026 [and] would further fear harassment, intimidation and violence [from] his words,” she said.<\/p>\n

No remorse shown<\/p>\n

The magistrate said Koschel’s actions took place on a “day of unity where people come together to reflect on shared values [and his] offending was the antithesis of that”.<\/p>\n

“The indication or normalisation of hatred directed at the Jewish people \u2026 will not be tolerated and must be used to deter others,” she said.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Freund said she felt “satisfied no penalty other than a full-term imprisonment is appropriate in this case”.<\/p>\n

She also noted Koschel had not shown any remorse nor apologised and his “lack of insight is relevant to the sentence”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The comments were made during an anti-immigration rally in Sydney. (ABC News: Simon Amery)<\/p>\n

Koschel, who appeared via audio-video link from Shortland Correctional Centre, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment after a 25 per cent discount was actioned for his guilty plea.<\/p>\n

The term was backdated for time served since his arrest, and he will be eligible to apply for parole on October 26.<\/p>\n

The maximum penalty for the offence is two years’ jail time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who delivered an antisemitic speech at a protest on Australia Day has been jailed, with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50562,9903,201930,246608,245670,29180,43,171141,78249,44,198757,5847,44600,182874,240274,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-487483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-anti-immigration-rally","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-australia-day","11":"tag-australia-day-protest","12":"tag-brandan-koschel","13":"tag-hate-speech","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-moore-park","16":"tag-neo-nazi","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nsw-court","19":"tag-nsw-news","20":"tag-sentence","21":"tag-sydney-news","22":"tag-sydney-protest","23":"tag-top-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topnews","26":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487483","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=487483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487483\/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=487483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}