An Austrian man has been given jail time for posting online a picture of cat doing a Nazi salute, and other images glorifying the Third Reich.

The 38-year-old man, from Flachua in Salzberg, was found guilty of uploading around 20 Nazi propaganda photos and charged under Austria’s anti-Nazi Prohibition Act. He apologised in court and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Austria’s anti-Nazi Prohibition Act, passed in 1947, makes it illegal to display statements which glorify the Nazi regime.

The picture of the cat appearing to do the Hitler salute was described as “extreme right-wing propaganda”, according to German language regional newspaper Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, and police also found found clothes with Nazi symbols attached when they searched the man’s house.

“It is not so much on the individual picture ... but what arises for an impression in the overall context,” said attorney Markus Neher.