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World Jewish News
Austrian Holocaust denier jailed for five years for propagating hate
29.04.2009
An Austrian court has sentenced an extreme-right writer to five years in prison for denying the Holocaust and promoting Nazi ideology. Gerd Honsik's, who was given 18 months in prison in 1992 for similar offences linked to his book "Acquittal for Hitler?" but fled abroad during his appeal, lived in Spain from where published revisionist texts on the internet. He was extradited to Austria in 2007. Honsik denied the charges and said he would appeal against the verdict. "To impose five years in prison for exercising one's freedom of opinion is just intolerable," said defense lawyer Herbert Schaller.
The prosecutor called Honsik "one of the ideological leaders" of Europe's neo-Nazi scene and said he had distributed his "hate magazine" at schools. Honsik called himself a Social Democrat and said he had only "rejected the textbook wisdom that demonizes National Socialism." He argued he had never denied outright the existence of gas chambers where 6 million Jews were killed but had only ruled them out "wherever I had not verified the [facts] myself."
After the judge repeatedly rejected Honsik's motions to admit evidence, calling it irrelevant, the defendant began screaming and beating his fists on his table in the dock. "I want to be allowed to defend myself. I have nothing to lose. Statistically, I have only nine years to live," he said.
Источник: WJC
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