Originally published December 18 2005
Historian jailed for denying Holocaust in Vienna
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
British historian David Irving was recently arrested for denying the Holocaust while giving lectures in Vienna in 1989, where it is illegal to do so, and the penalty for his offense ranges from 1 to 10 years in prison.
British historian David Irving, known for his controversial views on World War Two, must stay in custody in Vienna while he is charged with denying the Holocaust, a court ruled on Friday.
Vienna's state prosecutor this week charged Irving with denying the Holocaust in two lectures he gave in 1989.
Denying the Holocaust is illegal under Austria's law prohibiting the Nazi Party.
It carries a sentence of one to 10 years in prison.
"His lawyer filed for his release from custody and offered bail," said a spokesman for the Vienna criminal court.
"The judge dismissed his motion, ruling that there was a risk of escape and risk of committing the act (of denying the Holocaust)."
Irving has three days to appeal against the ruling.
The court will reconsider whether he has to stay in prison every month.
The next scheduled court ruling is on December 27.
Irving was arrested two weeks ago -- under a warrant issued in 1989 -- after visiting Vienna to speak at a meeting of a far-right student fraternity called Olympia, he told Austrian weekly magazine News.
When driving to the meeting in Vienna, one of the students noticed plainclothes detectives waiting near the fraternity's house, he said.
Irving changed plans and drove to Graz in the southern province of Styria to visit one of his publishers.
Police stopped him on the motorway and detained him.
Irving has two weeks to object to the charge.
The court proceedings could start next year, the court spokesman said.
A British High Court ruling in 2000 rejecting Irving's libel action against an American professor and her publishers who had declared Irving "an active Holocaust denier ...
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