[aculeus]

However ...

The only way for Mr Irving to secure a light sentence would be for him to convince the eight-strong jury that he had indeed changed his spots and was no longer an active Holocaust denier. If he does manage to escape with a suspended sentence, he would then be free to travel to a "scientific" congress on the Holocaust in Iran to which he has been invited.

[vimto]

We all know this chaps views.

As unpleasant as they are they should not be criminalized.

Australia and some other countries (like UK) are going down the wrong road on this one....

[satchmodog9]

High libel court. WOW.

[BenLurkin]

This (IMO) scumbag can go to Iran -- but he will never be able to retract his words admitting the truth about Auschwitz.

[A. Pole]

The only way for Mr Irving to secure a light sentence would be for him to convince the eight-strong jury that he had indeed changed his spots and was no longer an active Holocaust denier.

Bump

[Petronski]

Precisely!

I'd love to believe he's had a change of heart, but this guy is a skunk, and I bet he's willing to say anything to get probation or a suspended sentence so he can flee the jurisdiction and cry "Neener neener neener!"

[rcocean]

That someone should be put in jail for holding a goofy view of history is insane.

I loved this part:

"Mr Irving faces a maximum sentence of ten years in jail under Austria's 1946 Banning Law which makes it an offense to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust. He has been held without bail since November on charges stemming from two speeches he made to Austrian rightwingers in 1989."

So, in other words, he might spend 10 years in prison for something he said 17 years ago! Which he now says is "incorrect".

Thank God for the first amendment. The Euros haven't changed their spots, they're still Totalitarians at heart.

I can understand why Hitler came from Austria. What a country.

[Tarkin]

The only problem is that AFAIK Irving never denied that Holocaust happened. I actually bothered to read a couple of his books ("Nuernberg" is actually very well written, even though he obviously sympathizes with the Germans). He only claimed that:
a) gas chambers weren't used to kill Jews
b) Hitler didn't know about Holocaust.
Obviously these claims are idiotic beyond belief (especially the second one) but that doesn't change the fact that he's not a Holocaust "denier" (because he never denied that it actually happened, at least not in his books). Anyway, even if he claimed that Holocaust never happened I don't think he should be jailed. Imprisoning people for telling lies isn't a good idea (BTW, when are the European courts going to start prosecuting French communists for denying communist atrocities?)

[Grut]

Oh yeah -- it's worth mentioning that all the posters who keep saying "six million" are 'denying' the five million or so non-Jews the Nazis also murdered.

[dennisw]

hmmmm.......

[John Lenin]

Thought crime! Don't think and they can't arrest you ...

[Casloy]

Man, the guy is an idiot, but to make him sit their and deny what he believes like some Russian purge trial is scary.

[Spirochete]

A Swedish pentecostal minister named Ake Green was convicted of hate-speech for calling homosexuality a "deep cancer tumor" on society. His conviction was recently overturned, but hate-speech is still a crime in Sweden.

European countries aren't "free" in the sense the USA is, but "free" only in comparison to the USSR. One has serious freedom issues living there, unless one is a muslim.

[Revolting cat!]

My suffering was the greatest! Worship me, you worthless deniers!

[Revolting cat!]

Write a book denying the crimes of Communism and you'll meet half the qualifications required for a tenured position at an American University. (Having participated in Communist terrorist activities more recent than ancient WWII history will help tremendously as well - see professors Angela Davis, Bernardine Dohrn for references.)