It seems to me that Zundel has slandered many people by writing that their reports of the Holocaust were phony. The German court was right to punish him for that.
Five years for slander?
How many people in the US would be in jail by now?
Please, slander (or in this case, libel) is the proper subject of a civil suit, not a criminal prosecution. While the German court was "right" to punish him inasmuch as it acted consistently with German law on the matter, German speech law violates the rights of the people of Germany to say what they wish without wondering if the government approves of it or not. You'd think people who experienced tyranny so recently in their history would value their liberty more than that.
Personally, I would like to imprison all of the anti-war mother sheehan's of the nation. I'd like to put all of ANSWER, Code Pinko, etc, behind bars for at least 5 years.
The problem, of course, is that little thing we have here called a constitution, which protects freedom of speech.
Stupid German tricks like this can only lead to more infringement on the right to think whatever the heck we want to.
Using a technicality to criminilize speech that you disagree with is still sleazy. Holocaust deniers should be mocked heartily, but not imprisoned. Europe is retarded.
Slander is a CIVIL matter... they should have sued him for damages.