Two Australian nationalists have been arrested while trying to pay their respects to fallen soldiers at a remembrance ceremony in Melbourne.
The pair, Tim Lutze and Jimeone Roberts, were among a small group of men who turned up at the Shrine of Remembrance to attend the weekly Last Post Service on Sunday afternoon.
But despite attending as members of the public and not part of a protest or political gathering, the group, which also included National Socialist Network leader Jacob Hersant, were blocked by dozens of police.
Video shows a Victoria Police inspector telling the group he was invoking Section 6 of the Shrine of Remembrance Act, accusing them of breaching the regulations by assembling at the shrine, and ordering them to leave immediately or be arrested.
“So Australian citizens aren’t allowed to pay respects?” one of the men asked in response, while other questions asking for clarifications on the regulations were ignored by police.
A representative from the shrine then told the group that because there was a specific service honouring war animals the Shrine had decided to deny them entry.
“We believe that it is best that that service is allowed to be conducted without any group who are seeking to demonstrate any level of political allegiance or affiliation that is not related to the purpose of this place,” he said.
“If we come without political memorabilia, can we attend?” Mr Hersant asked, to which the inspector told him he had 30 seconds to move on.
Mr Lutze and Mr Roberts were then arrested, and Mr Roberts was later charged and denied bail.
Nationalist activist Joel Davis shared photos of the arrests on Telegram where he described the actions of police as “absolutely disgusting”, saying that they were not in NSN uniform and that the gathering was not a protest of any sort.
“We would never protest a military remembrance ceremony as we honour the fallen. We however attend them frequently, peacefully and solemnly, precisely because we honour the fallen,” he said.
“There have been many absurdly unjust arrests and acts policing against us over the years, but this is probably the most disgusting act yet.
“Arresting an Australian citizen for venerating his ancestors at the temple of remembrance – desecration, sacrilege.”
The Shrine earlier this month denied that the Last Post Service was set to be impacted by state government funding cuts to Victoria Police, which covers the costs of the Shrine Guards.
And late last year veterans slammed Shrine management for making a commercial deal to allow a catering company to host corporate events there.
