Der
Standard
Vienna, December 20 2006, 19:02 [German
text
| English
translation] Head
of the Day: The right wing judge gets grouchy
Ernest
Maurers Senate freed
holocaust
denier David
Irving Vienna
- Ernest Maurer could
"nobly forgo the honour" of being "Head of the
Day". Still, the judge presides over the appeals
senate of the Oberlandesgericht Vienna that
released David Irving on Wednesday. Maurer
based his decision, inter alia, on the "so far
unimpeachable conduct" of the man who for so long
and persistently
denied the
Holocaust. Maurer isn't for the first time
deciding in favour of the rightwing. "It is at any
rate noteworthy that Maurer's senate sent back to
square one 24 cases that were dismissed in the
first instance, for example the case that Minister
of Justice Dieter Bohmdorfer as FPO attorney
representing Jörg Haider brought
forward. Convictions for 'slander' (against
commentators, who believe to detect brown shimmers
in Haider's blue party) are usually ultimately
upheld," wrote Daniel Glattauer, court
reporter for the Standard in 2000 about
Maurer. Controversial
Judge Just this November [2006] the
European Court of Human Rights dismissed one of
Maurer's judgements against the Standard
journalist. Glattauer had critically questioned the
role of FP-man Ewald Stadler. Rightly so,
found Strasbourg, and simultaneously overturned two
more of Maurer's judgments against the
Standard. And against other papers too. "If the European Court holds a
contrary view, I have to take note of that", said
he. However, other legal practitioners, for example
Hannes Tretter of the Boltzmann Institute
for Human Rights, recommend remedial training on
the subject of freedom of opinion for the Austrian
justice system. A spokesman for the Minister of
Justice also recommended the "development of public
consciousness",. It pains Maurer always to be
associated with the FPO, for example by the
Standard which he says "continuously" writes
falsehoods about him, which makes him
"grouchy". In 2000, on the recommendation of the
FPO, he allowed himself to be seconded to the
governing body of ORF [the Austrian
broadcasting corporation]. "Perhaps too naive",
he mused later. Linguist Ruth Wodak
addresses Maurer again in a second book. "The
espousal of racial purity, eugenics and being
against the integration of foreigners is not
regarded per se as slanderous", she quotes a
[Maurer] judgement: "The idea of racial and
genetically pure nations is as such an ideal
conception not first invented by National
Socialism"." Is the quiet media judge, despite his
"grouches" giving away something about himself? 62
years old, divorced and childless. Hobbies? "No
party political things." He restores antique
automobiles. Which? "Not German jeeps", few
military (one Jeep from 1943). Biggest pride? "A
real Austrian vehicle, a Steyr 220 convertible from
1937." It also transports ideas from that
time. (Harald Fidler, DER STANDARD, print
version 21.12.2006) [German
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