Alexander Patton,a barrister representing Hersant,told Judge Kellie Blair on Tuesday that his client felt he was being unnecessarily targeted and surveilled by authorities.
“Mr Hersant refers to being unnecessarily targeted,under constant watch due to his political opinions,” Patton said,“[which is] objectively true.”
Patton said his client was being excessively monitored by police,who would wait outside Hersant’s home and gesture when family peered through the curtains at them.
“[It’s the case for Hersant that] members of various state and Commonwealth bodies sit on the bottom of the car and wave at he and his family through the living room window,” he said.
Sewell’s barrister,Michael McGrath,echoed those sentiments and said the NSN leader took issue with the way police had dealt with his belief system.
“It might not be a political belief that I shared,but he’s entitled to have his political belief,and he takes issue with the way that the police deal with his political belief,” he said.