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Archive for the ‘Holocaust Denial’ Category

Holocaust denial accused intended no offence, extradition hearing told: “Australian historian challenges validity of German-issued arrest warrant after being held at Heathrow”

(Via Latest news, sport, business, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk.)

German goes on trial for Holocaust denial – International Herald Tribune: POTSDAM, Germany: A founder member of a left-wing terrorist group turned neo-Nazi went on trial in Germany Wednesday accused of publishing documents on the Internet denying the Holocaust.

Horst Mahler, a founding member of the Red Army Faction in 1970, is accused of regularly posting documents online between 2001 and 2004.

Denial of the Nazi Holocaust is a crime in Germany. Mahler has been charged with incitement and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

The Potsdam state court trial is the latest case against the 72-year-old attorney, who was sentenced to 11 months in prison in July last year for giving the stiff-armed Nazi salute when he reported to prison after a conviction in a separate case.

In addition to several neo-Nazi related convictions, a court in Mainz in 2003 found Mahler guilty of condoning a crime for saying the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States were justified and fined him several thousand euros (dollars).”

He was also convicted in the mid-1970s for RAF related activities — including several bank robberies and for helping notorious terrorist Andreas Baader, another founding member of the group, to escape from jail.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison but was released in 1980 after he made several public statements condemning terrorism and Red Army Faction methods.

Mahler then joined the far-right National Democratic Party, from 2000 to 2003, and acted as its attorney. The Potsdam trial is expected to last until at least mid-November.

Holocaust denier David Irving compares British justice to Nazi Germany in court outburst | Mail Online

By Rebecca Camber, Last updated at 12:58 AM on 04th October 2008

Disgraced historian David Irving yesterday compared British justice to that of the Third Reich.

The Holocaust revisionist launched his outburst as he attended court to support his friend Gerald Toben, 64, who was arrested on a German extradition warrant during a stopover at Heathrow.

Toben is accused of publishing internet material between 2000 and 2004 that ‘denies, approves or plays down’ the Holocaust, which is illegal in Germany.

Outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Irving, 70, said: ‘This type of procedure demeans our society in that the Germans and Austrians can dictate to us what we feel and can say and what we read and write. They lost that right in 1939.

‘If the British soldiers in Normandy who went to the beaches in 1944 could see what happened today, they would not have gone 40 yards up the beach.’

Irving, who was jailed in Austria in 2006 for denying the Holocaust, plans to invite Toben to stay at his home in Windsor if he is granted bail next week.

He went on: ‘I disapprove of some of his views but he has the right to express them, just as people disapprove of my views but my books and views are suppressed.

‘It’s like living in Nazi Germany. What we have seen here today is like Nazi Germany, but in pinstripe suits.’

Last night D-Day veteran Roland Jefferson, 83, who landed on Juno Beach in June 4, 1944, said: ‘Irving is a lunatic and I’m not happy with his comments that are bound to make a lot of veterans angry.

‘The Holocaust was dreadful and everyone who bravely fought on D-Day recognises that.’

Nobody is safe from the long arm of EU law – Telegraph

By Philip Johnston, Last Updated: 12:01am BST 06/10/2008

Here is something the Government told us would never happen. When Britain signed up to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) six years ago, critics pointed out that an individual could be extradited to another EU state to face prosecution for something that is not a crime in Britain and had not even been committed in the requesting country. Ministers dismissed such concerns as fanciful, but it has come to pass.

An Australian teacher is currently in jail in London, following his arrest at Heathrow airport by British police acting on a warrant issued by the German authorities.

Gerald Töben, 64, is wanted in Germany for the offence of “Holocaust denial”. It used to be a fundamental protection in British law that no one would be sent for trial in another jurisdiction for something that is not an offence here. It was called the principle of dual criminality. However, when the EAW was drawn up this principle was removed for a list of 32 offences, which include the crimes of “racism and xenophobia”.

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MELANIE PHILLIPS: We must never let Brussels turn Holocaust denial into a crime | Mail Online

Holocaust-denial law and the attempted extradition of a man for publishing antisemitic material

Last updated at 12:06 PM on 06th October 2008

Later this week, a London magistrates’ court will hear a bail application in an extradition case which should be ringing alarm bells.

A German-born Australian citizen, Fredrick Toben, was arrested as he passed through Heathrow by British police acting under an EU arrest warrant issued by the German authorities.

The Germans have accused him of publishing antisemitic Holocaust-denial material on his Australian website.

There is no doubt that the views expressed by Toben, a notorious falsifier of history who was previously sentenced to nine months’ jail in Germany for breaching its Holocaust- denial law, are vile. He says, for example, that there is no proof that Hitler systematically exterminated the Jews and that Auschwitz was merely a ‘transit camp’.
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Should we extradite Holocaust deniers? | Politics | guardian.co.uk

What should we do about Dr Fredrick Töben, detained at Heathrow this week under a fast-track EU arrest warrant issued by the district court in Mannheim?

Dr who? I know, it’s been a busy week, and I hadn’t heard of him either until he popped up to be remanded in custody by Westminster magistrates. By the time you read this he may be on a plane to Germany – or home to Australia.

Töben is a 64-year-old German-born historian who runs something called the Adelaide Institute. He denies frequent accusations that he is a Holocaust denier, but judging by some of the things he says and writes he makes a pretty good job of passing himself off as one. Phrases like “Holocaust racketeers, the corpse peddlers and the Shoah business merchants” characterise some of his scholarship.

In other words he believes that the six-million-dead German Holocaust which took place during the 1933-45 Hitler regime, a well-documented narrative accepted by most historians, did not occur, or did so on a much smaller scale. If you challenge the Holocaust you must expect persecution and abuse, he says.

Well, plenty of people, not all of them Jewish, have pursued him during a teaching career on three continents – from New Zealand to Nigeria. In 1999 he served nine months in a German prison for breaching the Holocaust law there that forbids the “defaming of the dead” in this way. Needless to add, Töben attended the Holocaust revisionist conference held in Tehran in 2006.

A nasty piece of work by the sound of it, and some nasty websites are exercised on Töben’s behalf.
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Irving supports Australian ‘Holocaust denier’

Irving supports Australian ‘Holocaust denier’

Controversial historian David Irving has jumped to the defence of Gerald Frederick Toben, the Australian man who was detained by British police earlier in the week on a German arrest warrant.

Germany alleges the Australian denies the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis in World War II.

Denying the Holocaust is an offence that carries a five-year jail sentence, and the German authorities are seeking his extradition.

Toben set up the Adelaide Institute in 1994, an organisation that is considered to be a Holocaust denial group.

Overnight the South Australian appeared in a London court where he fought against his extradition, and there to support him was Mr Irving.

Mr Irving says the prosecution of people he calls revisionist historians is a direct attack on free speech.

‘I think it’s a contagion that’s going around the world. It began in Australia, it began in Canada,’ he said.

‘I think if you have one version of history that is government-approved then all society suffers.

‘It’s the job of us, the revisionist historians, to ask questions, even if they’re awkward questions, questions that governments don’t like.’

Despite his show of support, Mr Irving is not holding out much hope for the extradition fight and he expects Toben to come before a German court.

‘What scandalises me is that this is obviously a political offence that he is being charged with, and you cannot be extradited for political offences,’ he said.

‘This used to be one of the great securities of the human rights. But under the legislation in Europe now people who criticise aspects of holocaust history are denied the protection of the Human Rights Act in Europe.’

Mr Irving has offered to have Toben stay at his house and to guarantee his appearance at any subsequent court dates.

Toben will reappear in court next Friday.

The Press Association: Huhne in refuse extradition call: “Huhne in refuse extradition call

The British courts should refuse to act on a European arrest warrant requesting the extradition to Germany of a man accused of Holocaust denial, a senior politician said.

Australian citizen Frederick Toben was arrested on Wednesday at Heathrow, en route from the United States to Dubai, and has been remanded in custody awaiting an extradition hearing on October 17.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said that individuals should not be handed over to courts abroad for Holocaust denial, which is not a crime in the UK and raised issues of freedom of speech.

The former MEP said that countries could ‘pick and choose’ the cases in which they would apply warrants issued by fellow EU member states, citing the case of Belgium, which has said it would not send suspects to Poland on murder charges which related to abortion.

Mr Huhne told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There is a clear precedent for doing this and I think we should in this case.’

Dr Toben was detained under an EU arrest warrant issued by the District Court in Mannheim, Germany, which accuses him of publishing material on the internet ‘of an anti-semitic and/or revisionist nature’.

While stressing that he was completely opposed to anti-semitism, Mr Huhne said: ‘We don’t in this country tend to prosecute people for issues that we regard as issues of freedom of speech.

‘I don’t think the European arrest warrant was designed to be used in this sort of case and there are good legal grounds under Article 4 of the European arrest warrant whereby we could actually refuse to participate in this.

‘I think it is a pretty dodgy case that the Germans are bringing, both in terms of German law and in terms of the reach of it, because in fact Dr Toben didn’t actually commit this offence in Germany.

‘If somebody goes too far and incites violence or causes an attack on somebody else, then it is absolutely right they should be prosecuted, but there is a very clear distinction from something you hold as an opinion – it may be wrong and you may completely disagree with it, and I do in this case… I think we have to hold that fundamental belief in freedom of speech.’ “

(Via .)

BBC News: ‘Holocaust denier’ case adjourned

Page last updated at 15:47 GMT, Friday, 3 October 2008 16:47 UK

A historian wanted in Germany for alleged Holocaust denial has been remanded in custody in Britain after his extradition hearing was adjourned.

Dr Gerald Toben, 64, was arrested by British police at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday under an EU arrest warrant issued by the German authorities.

The warrant accuses the Australian of publishing material “of an anti-Semitic and/or revisionist nature” online.

A bail hearing is scheduled to take place on Friday, 10 October.

It will be followed by a full hearing on 17 October.

Dr Toben is accused of posting information online between 2000 and 2004 that denied, approved of or played down the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis.

Appearing in the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, Dr Toben described himself as a victim of “legal persecution” and said he did not consent to being extradited to Germany.

Tina Whybraw, representing the authorities in Mannhein, Germany, told the court Dr Toben was arrested on an aircraft at Heathrow Airport while it was in transit from the US to Dubai.

Well known Australian Holocaust Denier Frederick Toben Has been arrested at the Heathrow Airport under an EU arrest warrant issued by the German authorities. Holocaust Denial is not a crime in the UK.

BBC News: Holocaust key to extradition case

Page last updated at 15:56 GMT, Friday, 3 October 2008 16:56 UK

The arrest and attempted extradition to Germany by British police of an alleged Holocaust denier would set a ‘crazy and dangerous’ precedent, say campaigners.

Dr Gerald Toben was arrested by British police under an EU arrest warrant issued by the German authorities.

That warrant accuses him of publishing material online “of an anti-semitic and/or revisionist nature”.

Dr Toben has been remanded in custody after his extradition hearing on Friday was adjourned, but will face a bail hearing on Friday 10 October and a full hearing on 17 October.

Dr Toben, an Australian national, was convicted in Germany in 1999 for breaking a German law that prohibits denying or “playing down” the mass murder of the Jews under Hitler.

‘No laws broken’

Officers from Scotland Yard’s Extradition Unit arrested him on Wednesday while he waited on a plane at Heathrow airport.

Appearing before City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court the same day, Dr Toben said he was the victim of “legal persecution”.

He added: “It’s a witch trial mentality in Germany concerning this matter, which is not the case in England yet.”

Human rights campaigner James Panton, of the Manifesto Group, said that Dr Toben should not be extradited, because he had not broken any British laws.

“Extraditing this man – however unpleasant a character he may be – would set a crazy and dangerous precedent,” he said.

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