The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed 14 persons are being investigated for allegedly .
Talking to Senate estimates, AFP deputy commissioner Ian McCartney spoke in regards to the ongoing investigations into 14 people who find themselves beneath investigation for displaying Hezbollah flags throughout a ‘Nationwide Day of Motion for Gaza’ rally in Melbourne in September.
The AFP’s Counter Terrorism and Particular Investigations Command in Victoria established Operation ARDVARNA in October to research the show of the prohibited symbols.
McCartney stated investigators have spent round 1,100 hours investigating the matter, together with reviewing 90 hours of CCTV proof and police physique digital camera footage.
The AFP seized cellphones in addition to an merchandise of clothes depicting a prohibited terrorist organisation image.
Omar Hassan, organiser of the Melbourne rally, stated solely a really small group concerned within the rally had been flying the Hezbollah flag.
“Actually, as a Lebanese individual, it seems like there’s extra ardour and curiosity from media and politicians for some bits of fabric than the lifeless our bodies of Arab males, girls and kids,” he stated.
McCartney stated the AFP can be “investigating whether or not some discourse regarding deceased terrorists, or occasions within the Center East, has reached the brink of urging violence in opposition to teams or advocating terrorism”.
What are the legal guidelines banning terrorist and hate symbols?
In January, federal laws outlawing the Nazi salute or Nazi hate symbols got here into impact.
The brand new legal guidelines additionally encompassed glorifying or praising acts of terrorism by displaying symbols utilized by any organisations listed as terrorist organisations by the Australian authorities — together with Hezbollah, which was listed in 2021.
Dr Josh Roose, an affiliate professor of politics at Deakin College, advised SBS Information there’s a “continuum” between hate and terror symbols that made it logical to bundle each into the identical laws.
“An argument may very well be made that hate and terror are just about on the identical spectrum of abhorrent behaviour, anti-social behaviour, and likewise threatening behaviour,” Roose stated.
The penalty for displaying a prohibited image can embody as much as 12 months in jail.
There have lengthy been federal legal guidelines defending folks from racial vilification, which incorporates offending, insulting, humiliating or intimidating folks primarily based on their race, color, nationwide or ethnic origin.
Nonetheless, Dr Nicole Shackleton, a socio-legal researcher from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Expertise, advised SBS Information the brand new amendments to federal counter-terrorism legal guidelines coated gaps that had been beforehand lacking round advocating or expressing help for terrorist motion.
“Advocating for terrorist motion has been against the law for a very long time in Australia however this was a manner for the federal government to type of make clear the place round symbols and flags,” Shackleton stated.
Earlier than these legal guidelines, there have been instances that induced uproar, together with a Nazi flag displayed exterior a house in north-west Victoria in 2020 that led to a name to strengthen legal guidelines.
The chief government of Yarriambiack Shire Council, the place the flag was displayed, stated on the time, there was little the council might do about it apart from asking the residents to take it down.
Whereas NSW and Victoria handed laws banning Nazi symbols and gestures in 2022 and Tasmania adopted swimsuit in 2023, different states have payments earlier than their parliaments. The federal laws, nonetheless, permits the AFP to implement the legal guidelines and monitor using terrorist or hate symbols.
When is it an offence?
Displaying a prohibited image alone just isn’t an offence.
To represent a legal offence, displaying a prohibited image has to occur in circumstances which can be discovered to do the next: unfold concepts primarily based on racial superiority or hatred, incite others to offend, humiliate or intimidate an individual or group due to their race, or advocate hatred of an individual or group due to their race, faith or nationality, amongst others.
Prohibited symbols may also be used for non secular, educational, instructional, inventive, literary or scientific functions.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess stated that whereas folks waving Hezbollah flags could point out they observe a violent ideology, “it’d simply be the actions of a misdirected particular person who would not actually know what they’re doing”.
Have the legal guidelines been examined?
There have been 113 reviews regarding the show of prohibited hate symbols between January and October 2024, which resulted in 49 additional investigations by the joint counter-terrorism crew.
AFP deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett stated that of those reviews, 28 stay energetic, however no-one has been charged for the reason that hate symbols laws got here into impact.
Nonetheless, a number of folks have been discovered responsible of both displaying prohibited symbols or gestures beneath state laws, together with Sydney restaurateur Alan Yazbek who pleaded responsible to displaying a Nazi image at a pro-Palestinian rally in late October.
Are there nonetheless gaps within the laws?
Roose stated there are nonetheless gaps within the laws round sharing hate or terrorist symbols on-line, as it’s unclear whether or not this constitutes a public house.
“That raises all kinds of questions on on-line hate, which we do not have anyplace close to robust sufficient laws on this nation to ban.
“On the finish of the day, you might have Nazis sitting at dwelling right here in Australia sharing hateful materials, Nazi propaganda and flags and making hateful statements and never being held to account.”
