Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/EPA
Police have alleged in court that there is information online that suggests a man charged under hate speech laws after an alleged antisemitic comment during a speech at an anti-immigration rally yesterday has links to or may have been a member of a now disbanded neo-Nazi group.
Brandan Koschel was refused bail and remanded in custody after he appeared before the NSW bail division court on Tuesday from custody before magistrate Daniel Convington.
Koschel was charged under section 93ZAA of the Crimes Act for publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race after he allegedly made a series of antisemitic comments to a crowd at the Sydney March for Australia rally.
The court heard that police have alleged in their preliminary investigation that Koschel was at the rally with “known members or associates” of the National Socialist Network (NSN). Police also alleged there was “open source information” which the police prosecutor alleged referred to “information online linking him or suggesting that he is a member of the NSN”.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
The neo-Nazi group disbanded last Sunday ahead of legislation that outlaws hate groups passing federal parliament.
The court heard that he was wearing a black shirt with a “Celtic cross”, a known neo-Nazi symbol, and allegations that during the speech he hailed Thomas Sewell, the former leader of the NSN, as well as “white Australia”.
He also allegedly called for another figure, Joel Davis, who has been remanded in custody for allegedly sending a threatening message about independent MP Allegra Spender, to be freed from jail.
Convington said before refusing Koschel’s application for bail that the “ideologies suggested in the facts sheet” and the alleged comments made it difficult for the magistrate to determine what bail conditions could be put in place to “both protect the community and protect the risk of him committing a serious offence”.
Jasmine Lau, a lawyer acting on behalf of Koschel, told the court that her reading of the police facts was that, given the group had now disbanded, Koschel has no ongoing affiliation with an active group and there is no ongoing risk.
Lau argued Koschel should receive bail because he had a limited criminal history and no prior records of perpetrating a hate crime. She said that he “went to the event alone and did not speak with anyone else”, and that he had told her the Celtic symbol on his shirt was not an “NSN symbol”.
The police prosecutor argued that no bail conditions could mitigate the risks. He told the court that public hatred towards the Jewish community in the wake of the Bondi terror attack had an “unacceptable risk of endangering the community”.
He said the speech was performed in front of “several hundred” people and was live-streamed.
Covington reserved his decision on whether to grant Koschel bail until midday. He said he’d like to first read the legislation that Koschel was charged under “carefully”.
The new law was part of a controversial suite passed through parliament by the Minns government last February in the wake of a caravan found laden with explosives in Dural, and a spate of antisemitic graffiti and arson attacks. It introduced new criminal offences for intentionally inciting racial hatred, with a proposed maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment.
Two people were charged within the first three and a half months after the laws were put in place in August. One had their charges withdrawn.
NSW police banned some individuals from entering Sydney’s CBD on 26 January, via “public safety orders”.
Police would not confirm the specific individuals that the “public safety orders” were issued to. However, former NSW leader of the NSN, Jack Eltis, posted to his Telegram channel last Tuesday that he had been issued an order.
Assistant police commissioner Brett McFadden was asked on Monday if anyone was removed from the March for Australia because they had been prohibited from attending, including former National Socialist Network members.
“All I can say is another individual has been served with a public safety order today who was removed from the event and, voluntarily, with police was escorted outside the precinct,” he said.
