An alleged far-right extremist has been charged in Sydney with threatening a Melbourne lawyer and journalist who had written about him.
Nathan Sykes was arrested at his Brighton-Le-Sands home on Friday morning and taken to Newtown police station where he was charged with three counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence; and two counts of using a carriage service to threaten serious harm.
Sykes is a lieutenant of prominent white supremacist Jim Saleam, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age.
The newspapers on Friday said the 50-year-old was arrested over allegations he made repeated and explicit violent threats to Melbourne lawyer and journalist Luke McMahon.
McMahon in 2017 wrote that Sykes had used pseudonyms to harass left-wing and Muslim activists on social media and contribute to the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer.
Sykes on Friday was granted strict bail on the condition he doesn't travel to Victoria, doesn't contact the alleged victim and that he surrenders his passport to NSW Police.
As he was leaving the police station, Sykes was asked by a reporter if he'd threatened McMahon.
"No, I was harassed by a troll," he replied.
Asked the same question again he replied: "If that guy's a journalist, mate, I'm a goddamn rocket scientist."
Sykes, trying to conceal his identity with a piece of paper as he walked through Newtown, revealed large rings on each finger of his right hand.
One ring bore the Iron Cross, a symbol often associated with the German military during the Nazi era.
Another ring featured the logo of the Golden Dawn, a Greek ultranationalist political movement.
Sykes is due to face Newtown Local Court on April 4.
Australian Associated Press
