Holocaust denier sentenced to 5 years in prison

[J @ M @ L]

MANNHEIM, Germany - A German court on Thursday convicted far-right activist Ernst Zundel and sentenced him to five years in prison for Holocaust denial in a case that underlined Germany's determination to prosecute people who claim the Nazis didn't murder six million Jews.

The 67-year-old Zundel, who was deported from Canada in 2005, was convicted on 14 counts of inciting hatred for years of anti-Semitic activities, including contributing to a Web site devoted to denying the Holocaust — a crime in Germany.

Zundel showed no emotion when Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen read the verdict, only nodding occasionally.

Zundel, who has also lived in Tennessee, and his supporters argued that he was a peaceful campaigner being denied his right to free speech.

His attorney, Ludwig Bock, said he would appeal.

"What is notable is the iron-hard refusal of the court to allow consideration of new scientific findings or expert opinions," Bock said.

Prosecutors in Germany were able to bring charges because the Web site is accessible there.

The German prosecution won praise from Bnai Brith Canada, a Jewish human rights group.

"The case of Ernst Zundel demonstrates clearly the strength, determination and resolve of Germany's hate crimes legislation, in stark contrast to our own," executive vice president Frank Dimant said in a statement. Dimant said Canadian hate crimes laws did not specifically recognize Holocaust denial as a crime.

Zundel faced 14 counts of incitement for disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda through a series of pamphlets and the Web site. Denying the Holocaust can bring three months to five years in prison.

His trial began in November in this southwestern city after an initial attempt to try him collapsed in March 2006 over a dispute with one of his attorneys, Sylvia Stolz.

At one stage, she was carried from the courtroom, screaming "Resistance! The German people are rising up," after she defied an order banning her from the trial on grounds she tried to sabotage the proceedings by denouncing the court as a "tool of foreign domination."

During the current trial, Bock quoted from Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and from Nazi race laws in his closing statements last week as argued for Zundel's acquittal.

Bock accused the Mannheim state court of not wanting to face a "scientific analysis" of the Holocaust and charged that prosecutors — one of whom has termed Zundel a "rat catcher" — had defamed his client.

Another of Zundel's five attorneys, Herbert Schaller, told the court that all of its evidence that the Holocaust took place was based only on witness reports, instead of hard facts.

In his own closing arguments, prosecutor Andreas Grossmann called Zundel a "political con man" from whom the German people must be protected, widely quoting from his writings, which argue that millions of Jews did not die at the hands of the Nazis.

"You might as well argue that the sun rises in the west," Grossmann said when asking that Zundel be given the maximum sentence. "But you cannot change that the Holocaust has been proven."

Born in Germany in 1939, Zundel emigrated to Canada in 1958 and lived in Toronto and Montreal until 2001. Canadian officials twice rejected his attempts to obtain Canadian citizenship, and he moved to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., until he was deported to Canada in 2003 for alleged immigration violations.

Mannheim prosecutors were able to open a case against Zundel because his Holocaust-denying Web site is available in Germany.

In February 2005, a Canadian judge ruled that Zundel's activities were not only a threat to national security, but "the international community of nations" as well.

A Canadian law, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, allows the government to hold terrorism suspects without charge, based on secret evidence that does not have to be disclosed to a suspect or his defense.

Zundel was deported a few days later.

Since the late 1970s, he had operated Samisdat Publishing, one of the leading distributors of Nazi propaganda and, since 1995, had been a key content provider for a Web site dedicated to Holocaust denial.

Zundel has claimed he is a peaceful man with no criminal record against him in Canada.

[Suffice]

regardless of whether people agree with his point of view, this is clearly a violation of free speech. There is no such thing as free speech. And i'm not a supporter of the recent French law that makes denying the armenian genocide a crime

[Sparegeez]

What's his reasoning for not believing in the Holocaust?

[I TO DA GEEZY]

Question is whether we're in favour of free speech.

'Goebbels was in favour of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favour of free speech, then you're in favour of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise.' (Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent,1992)

[Chief]

denying the holocaust is not an opinion.

[I TO DA GEEZY]

"Holocaust Denial" is also not an accurate term for what these people do. The term "Holocaust Denial" refer's exclusively to questioning the Jewish death rates of WW2. Downplaying, let's say, Gypsy death rates of WW2 in, let's say, Israel isn't a crime...

[7even]

I hate the thought police, Germany is rather prosecuting those who hurt their reputation, everybody knows they wouldn't care about it at all if the Holocaust had happened somewhere else.

Nobody should be sentenced to years in prison for his thoughts. Nobody, no matter what. Actions? Yes. Thoughts? No.

[Chief]

then he should keep his thoughts to himself..

if you try to stir up a bucket of shit, it will stink.

[virtuoso]

Exactly what geezy said, it doesn't matter whether you find the views disgusting that is the whole point of freedom of speech. This case along with Irving and several others just shows the disdain the elite has for people being alllowed to question events. Instead though people are attacked with emotional blackmail and have been trained to demonise those that question, in the greater scheme of things even if the "deniers" are wrong it matters not, what is important is that no one should be able to control thought.

[Narrator]

Why do the Jews feel a need to imprison those who question the numbers of dead in the Holocaust?  What do they have to hide?

[Lake Titicaca]

Why do the Jews feel a need to imprison those who question the numbers of dead in the Holocaust?  What do they have to hide?

lol

[Suffice]

American tax payers pay 2-4 billion dollars in aid to Israel every year. Why? A part of that money goes to Holocaust survivors. Most americans have absolutely nothing to do with holocaust survivors, especially since America was one of the countries who helped free the prisoners when Germany lost... yet we're still paying a fuck load of money to holocaust survivors, a state that violates intenrational military rules. On top of that, 40% of our tax money goes to "Defense" department spending, and even if you're against all the wars the US has been involved in, you still gotta pay, or else the fucking IRS is gonna come and fuck you. What a great fucking government system we're living under

[Westcoastin']

Nobody should be sentenced to years in prison for his thoughts. Nobody, no matter what. Actions? Yes. Thoughts? No.

100%

Why do the Jews feel a need to imprison those who question the numbers of dead in the Holocaust?  What do they have to hide?

Thats what I was thinking, if its 100% fact.....then these "deniers" would just be ridiculed not imprisoned, its like jailing someone for saying that the Earth is flat.

[Smoke Break]

Since the late 1970s, he had operated Samisdat Publishing, one of the leading distributors of Nazi propaganda and, since 1995, had been a key content provider for a Web site dedicated to Holocaust denial.
14 counts of incitement for disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda through a series of pamphlets and the Web site. Denying the Holocaust can bring three months to five years in prison.

I don't care either way, but he is doing more than just thinking this, he's expressing it to the public in many forms, propoganda, and we all know how many sadly impressionable minds there are out there, so its dangerous.

At one stage, she was carried from the courtroom, screaming "Resistance! The German people are rising up," after she defied an order banning her from the trial on grounds she tried to sabotage the proceedings by denouncing the court as a "tool of foreign domination."

crazy bitch, germany lost

[J @ M @ L]

Expressing your thoughts in public = freedom of speech.

When we said people shouldn't be punished for their thoughts, the expression of them was implied... how else would anyone know someone else's thoughts?