Video footage captured Sewell and dozens of others charging Camp Sovereignty – a sacred Indigenous burial site and the location of a permanent vigil in Melbourne’s Southbank – on Sunday evening after that day’s anti-immigration March for Australia rally in the CBD.
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Sewell had been in court contesting unrelated charges inside the building, when two unidentified men entered courtroom 27 and got into a heated confrontation with the neo-Nazi and his supporters.
The verbal altercation on level 6 of the Magistrates’ Court had to be broken up by about a dozen police officers and protective services officers.
About 10 of Sewell’s supporters and 25 police and protective services officers had gathered outside the court on Tuesday before the arrests.
One of the men arrested was wearing a black jacket bearing the message “F— off we’re full”.
Just hours before the arrests, on his way to his court hearing, Sewell derailed a press conference being held by Premier Jacinta Allan and Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, heckling Allan and saying “Heil, Australia” before being pushed away by security.
Sewell, the leader of the National Socialist Network, was in court as part of a three-day contest hearing after he was charged with intimidating a police officer and five counts of contravening personal safety intervention orders in November last year.
Sewell is also charged with getting another person to publish content about the two protected people online and sharing a video on X of one of the alleged victims in 2024.
The court heard he is also facing earlier charges of intimidating the law enforcement officer, as well as the officer’s partner, in October 2023.
Sewell, who was representing himself, was given permission by magistrate Michelle Hodgson to cross-examine the police officer he was accused of intimidating.
Sewell questioned the officer over his conduct at a protest in Docklands, when the officer had been forced to intervene between pro-refugee protesters and members of the National Socialist Network.
The 32-year-old extremist accused the officer of favouring the protesters advocating for refugees.
“Both groups were hostile, aggressive and swearing. Both groups were wearing face masks. But you treated one group differently. Why?” Sewell asked the officer.
The officer responded that he had seen National Socialist Network members advancing towards the other protesters.
“I was the person between the two groups, and I believe if I wasn’t there they would have clashed,” the officer told the court.
Hodgson repeatedly instructed Sewell to rephrase his questions and warned him on several occasions about commenting on the officer’s testimony.
Sewell complained about the size of a video screen that was used for the police officer to provide evidence remotely.
“The night-vision goggles I was issued in the army damaged my eyesight,” Sewell told the court.
Sewell was supported in court by four members of the National Socialist Network, dressed in black with the group’s insignia displayed on their shoulders, including prominent far-right figures Jacob Hersant and Jimeone Roberts.
Hersant, who was not arrested outside court on Tuesday, was the first Victorian found guilty of performing an illegal Nazi salute in November last year. He appealed a one-month prison sentence after making the offensive gesture outside the County Court on October 2023.
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