A member of Melbourne’s Greek community has been named by an Australian news outlet as one of three participants in a disturbing video circulated online depicting the burning of the Aboriginal flag.
According to The Age, the alleged participant of Greek heritage is in his late 20s and a former Liberal Party member.
The video which is said to have been orchestrated by a neo-Nazi group, has also drawn the attention of Australia’s intelligence agencies and Victoria Police.
Titled ‘Happy Australia Day from the Warriors of the Convict Resistance’, it shows three masked individuals setting the Aboriginal flag on fire, with a sign on the background reading a racist slur against Indigenous Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe.
But correspondence, reportedly sighted by The Age, between the Senator’s office and the federal police, suggests that authorities could not take firm action as the video, despite being offensive “does not appear to contain material which constitutes a criminal offence”.
“As the material has been posted on YouTube, which is owned by Google, the advised course of action is to follow the YouTube process for reporting inappropriate material,” the AFP is cited to have written to Senator Thorpe’s office on January 21.
The disturbing scenes follow the reading of a text by one of the video participants proclaiming Aboriginal people as ‘the enemy’ and welcoming the ‘conquering’ of their land.
‘Our forefathers did invade this land, in fact, they conquered it. The prize is the big red country, and our enemy is the Aboriginal,’ the reader is heard saying.
Upon conclusion of the footage, the balaclava-wearing group is shown performing to the camera a Nazi salute.
The Age report presents a detailed timeline of the Greek Australian’s alleged dealings with Melbourne’s neo-Nazi scene.
