January 12, 2000

[TRANSLATION] [original German]

Court demands Extradition

Right-wing Irving to be called to account at Weinheim

WEINHEIM (joe). Weinheim magistrates Court has requested the British government to extradite David Irving.

Against the "self appointed historian," as the Mannheim public prosecutor in question calls the 61 year old, there has been since 1996 an indictment for racial incitement. It goes back to a lecture which Irving delivered in Weinheim at the invitation of the then chairman of the NPD Günter Deckert, in the mid 1990s.[*] The 61 year old had made a name for himself on that occasion among the circles concerned because he challenged Hitler's blame for the war and among other things maintained that the Holocaust had not occurred.

While Deckert was sentenced to prison long ago for these events, the planned court hearing against Irving in the summer of 1997 had to be cancelled because the accused did not appear on the trial date. The attempt to summons him via the German embassy also failed.

The accused had travelled to the United States.

As has just been made known, Weinheim magistrates court thereupon commenced extradition proceedings. After the British government in lengthy preliminaries declared their basic readiness to support the German authorities, in August last year the official extradition request was served, as the court director has stated in response to an inquiry. It seems however doubtful that there will be any trial of Irving as the allegations against him will run out of time in September this year.