{"id":6105,"date":"2026-05-06T21:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6105\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T21:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:29:12","slug":"man-charged-after-swastika-shirt-worn-outside-royal-commission-hearings-in-sydneys-cbd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6105\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged after swastika shirt worn outside Royal Commission hearings in Sydney’s CBD"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 68-year-old man has been charged for allegedly wearing a shirt with an offensive symbol near Royal Commission hearings into antisemitism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police patrolling outside the third day of hearings in Sydney\u2019s CBD allegedly saw a man wearing a t-shirt with a swastika emblazoned on the front about 11am on Wednesday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Authorities\u00a0issued the\u00a0man, who identified himself to\u00a0police as Ian Minus of Killarney Heights,\u00a0with a move-on direction, which he\u00a0complied with.<\/p>\n

About 2.45pm on Thursday, the man was arrested at Manly Police Station and charged with behave in offensive manner in public place and cause prohibited Nazi symbol to be displayed in public place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was given conditional bail to appear before Manly Local Court on Wednesday,\u00a0May 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr\u00a0Minus had been sitting at a nearby caf\u00e9 before walking past media crews in the area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police were alerted to the shirt, which featured an alleged swastika in the colours of the Israeli flag and surrounding the Star of David – alongside a slogan referencing antisemitism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the swastika, on the t-shirt read: \u201cAnti-Semitism. Proud to be accused. Speak up!\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When questioned about his presence near the commission, he denied any link to the hearing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have business in\u00a0town,\u00a0and I wear this all the time,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He maintained he was not there to target the commission or those giving evidence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a Royal Commission here?\u00a0I’m\u00a0sorry,\u00a0I’m\u00a0just enjoying a cup of coffee in the streets of Sydney,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exchange continued as he was questioned about the connection between his actions and the inquiry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m sitting in the street, in a public street,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is disrespectful is\u00a0what’s\u00a0happening in Gaza and Lebanon and overseas – the killing of innocent people and children.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it about group punishment that Zionists\u00a0don’t\u00a0understand or object to?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Children<\/p>\n

Police later confirmed they had issued a move-on direction and would investigate the display of the symbol.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2022, New South Wales parliament passed laws making it a criminal offence to knowingly display a Nazi symbol in public without a reasonable excuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the incident, a spokesperson from the Royal Commission released a statement wanting to assure witnesses of their safety.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Royal\u00a0Commission is appalled\u00a0that such an item of clothing was worn in the vicinity of our hearing venue,\u201d the statement read.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSafety\u00a0of witnesses is paramount to the Royal Commission. We want to reassure witnesses and those wishing to engage with the Royal Commission that safety protocols are in place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Royal Commission is determined to investigate antisemitism in Australia without fear or intimidation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 68-year-old man has been charged for allegedly wearing a shirt with an offensive symbol near Royal Commission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[42,1112,7065,7445,3920,7446,7443,157,6916,247,7444],"class_list":{"0":"post-6105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sydney","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-attack","10":"tag-cbd","11":"tag-commission","12":"tag-hearing","13":"tag-royal","14":"tag-shirt","15":"tag-sky","16":"tag-swastika","17":"tag-sydney","18":"tag-thursday"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}