Irving was found to be an anti-semitic, racist, pro-Nazi polemicist who deliberately falsified the historical record. -- Australian Jewish News

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Australian Jewish News , January 25, 2002

$35,000 debt may thwart Irving visa bid

by Stefan Bialoguski

AN outstanding $35,000 debt to the Australian taxpayer has thrown up a further obstacle to Holocaust denier David Irving's latest attempt to enter Australia.

Irving's previous visa application, in 1996, was rejected because of his history of criminal convictions and dishonesty.

Last August, Irving filed another visa application, ostensibly to allow him to promote his book, Churchill's War, in this country.

But the Australian High Commission, in a letter posted on Irving's website, has queried his application.

Australian immigration officials have again raised the issues of his 1992 conviction and subsequent expulsion from Germany for Holocaust denial, his lying while under oath before a Canadian immi-gration adjudicator, and a British High Court judge's 1994 finding that he had given false evidence while trying to purge an earlier contempt of Court.

In addition, the High Commission has now raised the issue of "an unpaid debt oI $35,140 to the Australian Government for litigation costs awarded to the Minister [of Immigration]".

The debt was incurred by Irving's failed court challenge of the government's refusal of his 1996 visa application.

The government has given Irving until 8 March to put his case.

Irving was found to be an anti-semitic, racist, pro-Nazi polemicist who deliberately falsified the historical record to make it conform with his political beliefs by a British judge who rejected his attempt to sue Professor Deborah Lipstadt for libel two years ago. Irving says he plans to respond this week.

In comments posted on his website, dated last Friday, Irving accuses the Australian Government of "seeking grounds to exclude me".

He dismisses the accusations of dishonesty as "absolutely untrue" and accuses the German Government of suppressing free speech.

He concludes: "I will get out a reply to the Australians in the next day or two, after taking legal advice. I suspect that the final hurdle they will put up is the $35,000 costs."

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Jeremy Jones said: "Despite the fact that he owed Australian taxpayers this money, he involved himself in extensive, time-consuming and costly litigation against Deborah Lipstadt -- litigation which he lost. It is staggering that he seems to believe that Australian taxpayers should treat him as a charity case."