A woman charged with displaying the flag of banned terrorist organization Hezbollah at a Sydney rally last month has pleaded not guilty.
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00:00The offence 19-year-old Sarah Mahana was charged with is contained in new expanded laws that
00:07ban the idolisation or promotion of extremist views.
00:11Now they include a new offence which is for publicly displaying the symbols of a prohibited
00:16terrorist organisation.
00:18And it's proven that charge carries a maximum prison sentence of more than 12 months.
00:23Now these new laws were brought in by the Commonwealth earlier this year in response
00:27to what was seen to be a rise in far-right activities, namely neo-Nazi groups who were
00:32displaying the swastika flag and giving Nazi salutes.
00:36But they were first used in the wake of protests here in Sydney at the end of September against
00:41Israel's bombardment of Lebanon and Gaza.
00:44Now at that protest several demonstrators were filmed waving Hezbollah flags and also
00:50showing pictures of the organisation's slain leader Hassan Nasrallah.
00:54In the wake of that protest, police released a photo allegedly showing 19-year-old Sarah
01:00Mahana and she subsequently turned herself in to police and was charged under this new
01:04offence.
01:05Now Hezbollah has been a prescribed terrorist organisation by the Australian government
01:10since 2021, but proving this charge is not as simple as proving that somebody was waving
01:18the Hezbollah flag.
01:19In order to secure a conviction, prosecutors will have to prove a number of other elements
01:24and that is that they'll have to prove a reasonable person would conclude the accused
01:28was inciting hatred or advocating violence against a group or likely to insult, intimidate
01:35or humiliate somebody based on the basis of their religion, ethnicity or race.
01:40Now there's also an element of intent which needs to be proven with this charge.
01:44We know Sarah Mahana has pleaded not guilty in court this morning, but her lawyer has
01:48not yet said on what basis she'll fight these charges.
01:51He only spoke briefly outside court to say that she will be vigorously defending them.
01:55The matter is defended at this stage and it will remain defended.
01:59I can't say anything about the matter any further other than it's going to be defended
02:03and we have our proposed defence.
02:05Sarah Mahana was excused from her next court appearance and remains on strict conditional
02:09bail.
02:10Her matter will next be heard in court in December.