In a real warped way, I'm always proud to see a small band of skin-heads marching down the street with a few guys in hoods, etc. "What a great country" I think, that even idiots like these have the right to march down the street. (With the proper permits etc. and if they keep from breaking windows, etc.)
I agree with you.
No matter how much I despise holocaust deniers I think freedom of speech should be protected.
The EU is slowly turning into a totalitarian state.
It's even worse. I know something about this case.
The US Government ALSO cooperated.
I once met Ernst Zundel, a naturalized Canadian citizen, because he is married to the mother (an American Citizen) of a mentally retarded man who's computer I kept running until last year when he moved from California to his mother's home.
I also disagree with Zundel's position on the Holocaust and vociferously argued with him about his opinions, but he was certainly denied his civil rights both in the United States and Canada. In actual fact, Zundel did not write the books they mention in the article. He was merely the Canadian publisher of books written in Canada and the United States.
He has been convicted in Germany of "thought crimes" that occurred outside the jurisdiction where he has been tried and convicted: books published years ago in Canada.
Part of what he was accused of was running a "holocaust denial website"... which happens to be based in the United States and is blocked in Germany. Again, the jurisdiction of the courts that convicted him is very questionable... the crimes were not committed in German jurisdiction.
Zundel had been quietly living in the United States for several years with his wife, when he was arrested and deported to Canada for missing an immigration hearing that neither he nor his attorney were notified of.
Eight armed immigration officers arrested him at his house at gunpoint and then kept him incommunicado, not even allowed a phone call, for several days and moved from jail to jail in several states before being summarily taken across the Canadian border and handed to Canadian authorities for trial before their Human Rights Tribunal for "hate crimes" for publishing the books. During the entire trial, he was kept solitary confinement as a "terrorist." (One of the interesting rulings by the Tribunal, when Zundel's Canadian attorney presented evidence that Zundel had not written the words he was being accused of saying was "The truth is not a defense in this court."
In his German trial, his defense attorneys were repeatedly warned that they could not say anything that might be interpreted as denying the holocaust or they too would be arrested and tried. Twice, his defense attorneys were fired by the prosecutor and he had to start over with newly appointed (by the prosecutor) attorneys.
Be very fearful for the freedom of speech. This is the third check point on the slippery slope that passage of "hate crime" legislation has put us on.
The way to deal with such scum is to prove them to be fools, not make them imprisoned martyrs.