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Holocaust denier fined 10,000 euros

17 April 2010 04:33 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. British Holocaust denier Richard Williamson has been fined 10,000 euros, around Â£8,750, by a German court, APA reports quoting â€œThe Telegraphâ€.
he fine was less than the 12,000 euros he was initially hit with for claiming the mass extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis never took place.
Normally in German courts an appeal against an ’order of punishment’ sent out against an offender by the prosecution service is upped by a judge if the case goes to trial.
The court in the southern German city of Regensburg convicted Williamson of inciting racial hatred for stating in a television interview aired in January 2009 that only "200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps".
He also denied the Nazis had used gas chambers.
"The statements by the accused represent a denial of the actions taken under the National Socialist regime," said presiding judge Karin Frahm.
"Bishop Williamson must have assumed that his remarks would draw attention. Williamson knowingly accepted that attention.
London-based Williamson, 70, was absent from court when he launched his appeal against the original fine imposed last year.
Bishop Williamson’s lawyer Matthias Lossmann said his conservative religious brotherhood Pius X instructed his client not to attend the hearing in Regensburg Ã¢ " scene of one of Germany’s numerous Catholic sex scandals in recent weeks Ã¢ " but did not say why.
He also said he was defending him while finding his views "untenable." As the prosecution reiterated its demand for Williamson to pay 12,000 euros, Mr Lossmann said the bishop gave an interview to Swedish TV in 2008 on German soil believing nothing he said would be aired in Germany, a country where Holocaust denial is sometimes punishable with jail sentences.
"He knew this and so he asked the Swedish TV people to make certain it was not aired in Germany," he told the court. "He was convinced of the fact that the reporters from Sweden would have understood this."
But satellite pickups and widespread internet dissemination meant his controversial views were seen in the country where the extermination of the Jews was planned over six decades ago.
"I represent the rights of a client whose opinions I consider completely untenable ", said Mr Lossmann. But he pleaded with the court that Williamson did not mean, at any time, for his views to be broadcast in Germany.
Swedish journalists called as principal witnesses at the hearing stayed away. Judge Frahm read out a letter from the legal department of the broadcaster which made it plain the journalists were not prepared to give evidence.
In addition the Swedish Justice Ministry also said it would not press them to attend, because the law in Sweden is that nobody can be punished for what they said in an interview, no matter how distasteful.
Williamson was ordered to pay the money last year after giving an interview in 2008.
"I believe historical proof shows clearly that six million Jews did not die in gas chambers die due to the policy of Adolf Hitler," he said.
He claimed the true figure of Jewish deaths was around 200,0000 to 300,000, and none of them in gas chambers.
At the time, he was in Bavaria attending a ’Heart of Jesus’ seminar arranged by his brotherhood.
He was informed of the ’order of punishment’ by a German prosecutor last autumn; a legal process whereby the expense of a trial is spared if the defendant accepts his punishment. Bishop Williamson did not.
He ran the risk of footing the bill for these proceedings and also having his fine increased if the judge upholds the original fine.
Mr Lossmann said earlier in the week the bishop would consider appealing to two higher courts if he lost but it was not immediately clear what his next move might be.