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Friday, August 5, 2005
Belgian
Holocaust
denier held
at Schiphol BRUSSELS -- Belgian negationist
[European
word for Holocaust
denier] and
extreme-rights publicist Siegfried Verbeke
has been arrested at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam
[Holland]
and might be extradited to Germany for trial. A
German judge issued an international arrest warrant
against Verbeke at the end of last year because he
cast doubt
over the
internet whether the Nazis
actually killed six million Jews in World War
II. David
Irving comments: FOR ten years the
German Government also tried to have me
extradited to stand trial in their country
for books I have written around the world
and for a talk I gave in 1990 in Germany.
They reverted to it on the very first day
of the Lipstadt trial in London. Jack
"Lugubrious" Straw, when Home
Secretary in Britain, instructed his
senior staff to facilitate their
application (although even the Germans did
not expect to succeed, as their own
internal documents, obtained by my
lawyers, showed that they recognized that
the charges against me were purely
political, and as such not covered by the
European Convention). Several times Scotland
Yard's weary officers pounded the path up
to my front door in Grosvenor Square --
but each time, as luck would have it (and
I assume they knew it) I was overseas. Thereafter letters from
The Office of International Organized
Crime thudded onto my doormat with much
regularity. At first I thought they must
be from the Oval Office at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue, but they turned out
to be from Scotland Yard's SO.1 Branch,
asking to make "an appointment" at
Germany's request. So much for free speech in that
much-suffering country. It is
theoretically guaranteed by the very first
clause of their Basic Law, to which
however, in an Orwellian afterthought,
have subsequently been added the words:
Some Restrictions Apply. Napoleon the Pig still
rules in the Federal Republic of
Germany. | Germany asked Belgium to extradite Verbeke, of
Kortrijk, last year but a Belgian judge refused the
request, Belgian newspaper 'De Standaard'
reported on Friday [August 5, 2005].
Verbeke has already been convicted in Belgium for
negationism. The appeals court in Antwerp sentenced
him in April this year to a maximum one-year jail
term and a EUR 2,500 fine for breaching negationist
and anti-racism laws.The 63-year-old Verbeke has been the head of the
Free Historical Research centre (VHO)
since 1983. The centre publishes books in which the
Holocaust is denied or downplayed. Verbeke has used
the principle of freedom of speech to defend
himself in the past and is a renowned figure across
Europe. He holds links with various extreme-rights
groups across the continent, Flemish broadcaster
VRT reported. © Copyright
Expatica News 2005
Our
dossier on Germany's legal attack on David
Irving
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