ThoughtCrime: 08/29/06
Austrian Court Rejects
David Irving's Appeal
VIENNA - The Austrian Supreme court has upheld a guilty verdict
against the world's leading expert on World War Two,
David Irving. Irving was found
guilty of "denying" the Holocaust on February 20th of this year. The court confirmed the guilty verdict in a closed-door session
on August 29. Irving has been imprisoned for nearly seven months
on a charge dating back to 1989.
In a bizarre twist, Irving insisted at his trial that he no longer questioned the existence
of gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Still, he was
convicted as the court apparently did not believe that Irving was
sincere. Irving was also on trial for having said that the November 1938
Kristallnacht pogrom
was not the work of the Nazis, but of "unknown" people
who had dressed up as storm troopers, and that Adolf Hitler had in fact
protected the Jews.
Irving has also appealed the excessive three-year prison
sentence, which he is now serving. The ruling on that appeal is not expected
for at least two months according to the Austrian Press Agency.
Irving was prosecuted under an repressive Austrian law targeting those who "deny
the genocide by the National Socialists or other National Socialist crimes
against humanity." Austria is among 11 countries that have laws against
"denying" the Holocaust.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS
death
|