JamesP
02/20/06, 11:28 pm
Holocaust Denier Gets Three Years
By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, AP
VIENNA, Austria (Feb. 20) - Right-wing British historian David Irving has been sentenced to three years in prison by an Austrian court, which convicted him of denying the Holocaust - a crime in this country once run by the Nazis.
Irving, who had pleaded guilty and insisted during his one-day trial that he had had a change of heart and now acknowledged the Nazis' World War II slaughter of 6 million Jews, had faced up to 10 years behind bars. Before Monday's verdict, Irving conceded he had erred in contending there were no gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
"I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," Irving testified, at one point expressing sorrow "for all the innocent people who died during the Second World War."
But despite his apparent epiphany, Irving maintained he had never questioned the Holocaust. "I've never been a Holocaust denier and I get very angry when I'm called a Holocaust denier," he said.
Irving, 67, has been in custody since his arrest in November on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews.
Earlier Monday, he told journalists he considered it "ridiculous" that he was standing trial for remarks made 17 years ago.
Irving's trial was held amid new - and fierce - debate over freedom of expression in Europe, where the printing and reprinting of unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has triggered violent protests worldwide.
"Of course it's a question of freedom of speech ... The law is an ass," Irving said.
"He is everything but a historian ... he is a dangerous falsifier of history," Klackl said, calling Irving's statements an "abuse of freedom of speech."
By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, AP
VIENNA, Austria (Feb. 20) - Right-wing British historian David Irving has been sentenced to three years in prison by an Austrian court, which convicted him of denying the Holocaust - a crime in this country once run by the Nazis.
Irving, who had pleaded guilty and insisted during his one-day trial that he had had a change of heart and now acknowledged the Nazis' World War II slaughter of 6 million Jews, had faced up to 10 years behind bars. Before Monday's verdict, Irving conceded he had erred in contending there were no gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
"I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," Irving testified, at one point expressing sorrow "for all the innocent people who died during the Second World War."
But despite his apparent epiphany, Irving maintained he had never questioned the Holocaust. "I've never been a Holocaust denier and I get very angry when I'm called a Holocaust denier," he said.
Irving, 67, has been in custody since his arrest in November on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews.
Earlier Monday, he told journalists he considered it "ridiculous" that he was standing trial for remarks made 17 years ago.
Irving's trial was held amid new - and fierce - debate over freedom of expression in Europe, where the printing and reprinting of unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has triggered violent protests worldwide.
"Of course it's a question of freedom of speech ... The law is an ass," Irving said.
"He is everything but a historian ... he is a dangerous falsifier of history," Klackl said, calling Irving's statements an "abuse of freedom of speech."