Austrian soccer fan given an 18-month prison sentence for a Hitler salute during a match.
An Austrian soccer fan has been given an 18-month prison sentence for a Hitler salute during a match, AFP reported on Tuesday.
The unemployed 39-year-old fan of Rapid Vienna was spotted performing the banned gesture during a match in August 2016 and sentenced in Vienna on Monday, according to the news agency.
"I didn't really give it much thought. But it clearly wasn't a good idea," the man was quoted as having told the court, adding he had had "a few beers and spritzers" before the game.
Earlier this month, a court in the Feldkirch District of Austria found a 34-year-old man guilty of violating the country's anti-Nazi laws for his Facebook posts claiming that Jews made up stories about mass killings in gas chambers.
In February, an Adolf Hitler lookalike was arrested in Austria on charges of glorifying the Nazi era.
The 25-year-old man, who reportedly calls himself Harald Hitler, had been seen having his photograph taken outside the house in Braunau am Inn in which Hitler was born.