Töben found guilty of contempt

An Australian federal court has ruled that Dr.Fredrick Töben, author of Where Truth is No Defence breached court orders by publishing offensive material about Jews and the Holocaust on the Adelaide Institute Website. Töben was found guilty of criminal contempt for having defied court orders to stop publishing revisionist materials about the Holocaust on his Website. The Holocaust is the one period in history which may not be questioned in several countries around the world including Australia.

The civil action was launched by former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Jeremy Jones. Jones made the claim that Töben published statements that amounted to the position that the Holocaust never happened. Judge Bruce Lander found Töben guilty of willful contempt of court on 24 out of 28 possible counts. Lander said that Töben did not accept that freedom of speech “does not include the freedom to publish material calculated to offend, insult or humiliate or intimidate people because of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin.” The penalty has yet to be determined.

Dr Töben says he does not regret his actions. “If you believe in something and you want to have that freedom to express your opinions then you should be prepared for sacrifices,” he said. He has also commented, “Any law that is immoral, any legal proceeding that has a blatantly railroading effect on an accused, is to be rejected.”

Töben also faces charges in Germany for having published material on the Internet “of an anti-Semitic and/or revisionist nature” which denies, approves of, or plays down the Holocaust. Holocaust “denial” is a crime in the once free Germany and offenders can face up to five years in jail.