Thursday,
February 15, 2007
In
closing statement, Ernst Zündel said
an international commission of experts
should be set up to investigate whether
Jews were gassed by Nazis Germany
jails Holocaust denier [Ernst
Zündel] for 5 years A GERMAN court
sentenced a prominent Holocaust denier
extradited from Canada to five years in
prison on Thursday for inciting racial
hatred and denying the Nazis killed six
million Jews. Ernst Zündel, publisher of
works such as "Did six million really
die?", was handed the maximum sentence
under German law for Holocaust denial. Zündel, 67, has been in custody in
Germany since March 2005 after being
deported from Canada. The court would not
release him on bail because of the danger
he would flee. In his closing statement Zündel
said the court should set up an
international commission of experts to
examine the Holocaust. If the commission
confirmed the gassing of Jews, he told the
court he would convene a press conference
to apologise to Jews and other
victims. The trial was suspended in late 2005
after the judge dismissed a publicly
appointed defence lawyer when she produced
written submissions that appeared to deny
the Holocaust. It resumed just over a year
ago. Zündel is a German citizen who has
spent much of his life in Canada and whose
name is sometimes spelled Zundel. He ran a
Web site and distributed a publication
called "Germania Rundbrief" denying the
Holocaust took place. There
were posters of Zündel and other
prominent Holocaust deniers at last year's
Holocaust conference in Tehran organised
by Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who has doubted the
Holocaust and called for Israel's
destruction. Meanwhile, German Justice Minister
Brigitte Zypries (left) said
Thursday she was confident the European
Union can agree on EU-wide rules that
would impose jail terms for incitement of
hate crimes, Holocaust denial and racist
violence. Zypries, whose country holds the EU
presidency, acknowledged that getting
agreement on the sensitive issue would not
be easy. "Some countries have a problem one way
or another but I am confident that when we
negotiate in the next couple of months we
will find a solution," She told reporters
after EU ministers had a first discussion
on the issue.
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Our dossier on
Ernst Zündel
-
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2004 flashback: Ernst
Zündel charged with incitement in
Germany
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2005 flashback: "A
good investment" - Cost to Canadians of
sending Zündel to his native
Germany: $130,000. "The cost of the
trip is not of great concern to members
of the Jewish community, said Bernie
Farber, executive director of the
Canadian Jewish Congress."
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