{"id":488511,"date":"2026-02-18T19:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488511\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:30:14","slug":"man-jailed-for-a-year-after-endorsing-neo-nazi-views-and-making-antisemitic-speech-at-sydney-rally-on-australia-day-australia-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488511\/","title":{"rendered":"Man jailed for a year after endorsing neo-Nazi views and making antisemitic speech at Sydney rally on Australia Day | Australia Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who threw his support behind neo-Nazis and spouted antisemitic remarks to an Australia Day<\/a> rally crowd has been reprimanded and jailed for his offensive conduct.<\/p>\n

Brandan Koschel attended the anti-immigration March for Australia protest alongside hundreds of others winding their way through Sydney\u2019s<\/a> city centre.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old took the stage at the end of the march and endorsed neo-Nazi views before being immediately arrested by police.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, he was sentenced at Downing Centre local court to 12 months behind bars for intentionally inciting hatred.<\/p>\n

The magistrate, Sharon Freund, criticised Koschel\u2019s 40-second speech \u2013 in which he twice called Jews the \u201cgreatest enemy\u201d \u2013 as clearly antisemitic and vilifying a vulnerable community.<\/p>\n

The offensive, abhorrent language was then followed up by neo-Nazi symbolism, the magistrate said.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old finished his speech by \u201cheiling\u201d white Australia and Thomas Sewell, the leader of Australia\u2019s most prominent neo-Nazi group, the now-disbanded National Socialist Network.<\/p>\n

He also called for the release of the jailed neo-Nazi Joel Davis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe intended to incite hatred amongst the crowd he was addressing,\u201d Freund said. \u201cHe intended to incite hatred against the Jewish community and Jews in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

The magistrate noted that the Jewish community was particularly vulnerable after a rise in antisemitic attacks that culminated in the Bondi beach massacre, in which 15 people lost their lives during a Hanukah celebration in December.<\/p>\n

That mass shooting took place six weeks before Koschel took the stage, the magistrate noted.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old bowed his head and closed his eyes as he listened to Freund\u2019s remarks from a cell at Shortland prison in the Hunter Valley.<\/p>\n

The denunciation of these types of antisemitic remarks made in a public forum on such an iconic national holiday was essential, the magistrate added.<\/p>\n

\u201cA clear sentencing response is required to convey that the invocation or normalisation of hatred directed at the Jewish people \u2026 will not be tolerated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Koschel had also shown no remorse, contrition or insight into his offending, the magistrate said. He was given a discount to his sentence due to his early guilty plea.<\/p>\n

His non-parole period of nine months will expire on 25 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who threw his support behind neo-Nazis and spouted antisemitic remarks to an Australia Day rally crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-488511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488511","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=488511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}