Two Adelaide men have been accused of smashing more than 60 headstones in the Jewish section of a cemetery in the South Australia capital.
Raymond Joseph Searby, 23, and Robert William Sherlock, 18, were charged last week and were being held in custody, authorities said. A 19-year-old woman is to appear at a later date in connection with last month’s vandalism.
The desecration resulted in damage to the gravestones estimated at $15,000 to $46,000.
Adelaide is the base for a number of small neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic organizations.
The two men also have been charged in connection with a small number of Catholic graves damaged the same week.
After the attack, the prime ministers of Israel and Australia, as well as religious and other ethnic leaders, took part in a worldwide condemnation of the incident.
The suspects will be in court again Sept. 14.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.