Holocaust denier Irving is jailed

[Castro]

British historian David Irving has been found guilty in Vienna of denying the Holocaust of European Jewry and sentenced to three years in prison.

 

He had pleaded guilty to the charge, based on a speech and interview he gave in Austria in 1989.

 

"I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," he told the court in the Austrian capital.

 

Irving appeared stunned by the sentence, and told reporters: "I'm very shocked and I'm going to appeal."

 

An unidentified onlooker told him: "Stay strong!".

 

Irving's lawyer said he considered the verdict "a little too stringent".

 

"I would say it's a bit of a message trial," said Elmar Kresbach.

 

But Karen Pollock, chief executive of the UK's Holocaust Educational Trust disagreed. "Holocaust denial is anti-Semitism dressed up as intellectual debate. It should be regarded as such and treated as such," Ms Pollock told the BBC News website.

 

Fears that the court case would provoke right-wing demonstrations and counter-protests did not materialise, the BBC's Ben Brown at the court in Vienna said.

 

I'm not an expert on the Holocaust

David Irving

 

Irving arrived in the court room handcuffed, wearing a blue suit, and carrying a copy of Hitler's War, one of many books he has written on the Nazis, and which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.

 

Irving was arrested in Austria in November, on a warrant dating back to 1989, when he gave a speech and interview denying the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz.

 

He was stopped by police on a motorway in southern Austria, where he was visiting to give a lecture to a far-right student fraternity. He has been held in custody since then.

 

'I've changed'

 

During the one-day trial, he was questioned by the prosecutor and chief judge, and answered questions in fluent German.

 

He admitted that in 1989 he had denied that Nazi Germany had killed millions of Jews. He said this is what he believed, until he later saw the personal files of Adolf Eichmann, the chief organiser of the Holocaust.

 

"I said that then based on my knowledge at the time, but by 1991 when I came across the Eichmann papers, I wasn't saying that anymore and I wouldn't say that now," Irving told the court.

 

"The Nazis did murder millions of Jews."

 

In the past, he had claimed that Adolf Hitler knew little, if anything, about the Holocaust, and that the gas chambers were a hoax.

 

 

COUNTRIES WITH LAWS AGAINST HOLOCAUST DENIAL

Austria

Belgium

Czech Republic

France

Germany

Israel

Lithuania

Poland

Romania

Slovakia

Switzerland

 

In 2000, a British court threw out a libel action he had brought, and declared him "an active Holocaust denier... anti-Semitic and racist".

 

On Monday, before the trial began, he told reporters: "I'm not a Holocaust denier. Obviously, I've changed my views.

 

"History is a constantly growing tree - the more you know, the more documents become available, the more you learn, and I have learned a lot since 1989."

 

Asked how many Jews were killed by Nazis, he replied: "I don't know the figures. I'm not an expert on the Holocaust."

 

Of his guilty plea, he told reporters: "I have no choice."

 

He said it was "ridiculous" that he was being tried for expressing an opinion.

 

"Of course it's a question of freedom of speech... I think within 12 months this law will have vanished from the Austrian statute book," he said.

 

Source

[Sincere]

^^ Dont you find this a major contradiction regarding the recent uproar?

 

Mods, quick cleanup job thx.

[Khayr]

^^^

 

What a timing for such a decision!!!

 

What a timing for such a decision?!!!

 

EU is digging itself a HOLE, deeper and deeper

[Som@li]

This just proves that the Zionist rule the world,

[Blessed]

George Orwell would be proud :rolleyes:

[Dhimbil]

Where is freedom of speech?

[Zafir]

^^It doesn't apply on jews.

[Resistance]

Well this raises again questions of double-standards of the West .. am i suprised no, what else did you expect.

 

i just hope this is also a finger up to the so-called Muslims who supported the the recent Cartoons row .. encitinng freedom of speech ...

well now u now .. deny the Houlucust ever happened and u are thrown into prison. ... but crtisice and diss prophets and freedom of speech comes to ur rescue.

 

what about the WW2

[J.Lee]

Blessed: why?

 

Freedom of speech got into a headlong collision with Austria's judicial system and died at the scene of the accident. Lesson learned: keep your mouth shut.

 

B.T.W

 

Another convicted holocaust-denier, wow how shocking! laakiinse why do they mostly object to and reject the usage of gas chambers?

[Castro]

Could anyone find the exact wording of the statute or code under which Irving was charged and convicted? I'm all google-ed out and I can't read any bloody German.

 

Call it a Zionist conspiracy if you wish but these laws don't come out of thin air. They're the product of years, if not decades, of hard work, education and persistence.

 

I too would be furious if the plight of my people were denied by some racist pip-squeak. Chew on that, will you?

[Resistance]

Well the debate is not whethear the Holocoust did occur or nor .. rather that of Freedom of Speech which teh west holds so dear...and when is the line is crossed .. if denying the holoucust is a criminal act .. then has Insulting Prophtets including Ciisa (AS) is illegal .. is called double standards .. or rather Jewish take over of Wider Europe ...

[Cara.]

It's a stoopid counterproductive law that seemed reasonable in its historical context but no longer makes any sense. Only eediots deny the Holocaust, but silencing them or punishing them just gives them a legitimate platform on which to spout nonsense.

[Castro]

^ Not anymore stupidh than these. Many of the international laws out there could be considered stupidh as well. That a law is stupidh, outdated, or unfair is a matter for debate. But that should not be a deterrent to creating laws deemed necessary.

 

Here's my favorite stupidh law from the link above: In Oklahoma, "dogs must have a permit signed by the mayor in order to congregate in groups of three or more on private property." And another in that same state, "it is illegal to kiss anyone of not purely American nationality on the 4th July." I think you catch my drift good Callypso.

[Naden]

I think a good deal of these laws come as a way to appease the Jewish populace given that European country(ies) started and then supported the genocide of WWII. Neo-nazi sentiment is always under the surface in most Western European countries.

[Blessed]

Jimca Lee

'Four legs good, two legs bad ------> better '

 

Castro

 

They're the product of years, if not decades, of hard work, education and persistence.

Hopefully, when we're done burning flags we can get around to convincing these Europeans that there are limits to their sacred freedom of expression.

 

 

P.S Though a three year prison sentence is a little OTT, I don't think that it's a ****** law.