Woman accused of displaying Hezbollah flag at rally pleads not guilty

A woman charged with displaying the flag of banned terrorist organization Hezbollah at a Sydney rally last month has pleaded not guilty.

Transcript

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.