He was detained a week ago on a warrant issued in 1989 under Austrian laws that make it a crime to deny the Holocaust.
...
If formally charged, tried and convicted, Mr Irving could face up to 20 years in prison...
fucking outrageous. it isn't the right of the state to decide historical truth and jail people for disagreeing, even when irving IS blatantly speaking out of his arse
The head of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust said denial was not a matter of opinion.
"Austrian law demands incisive action to protect its citizens from a repeat of the past," he added.
oh the irony. not to mention that irving is british and so has no nazi mistakes of the past to repeat
Last edited by seremtan on Sat Nov 19, 2005 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
So in order to protect themselves from again becoming a society where among other things dissidents were imprisoned for voicing their opinion they will.............?
Interesting fact: Everyone knows the main characters from 1939-45 Germany, but a maximum of 2 from the Soviet Union of the same era. The actions of Nazi Germany have been deemed illegal, yet the USSR isn't acknowledged as such. History knows these two regimes to be equal in conducting unimaginable horrors.
So I just piss on anyone who goes out of their way acting like drama-queens over something that happened 60 fucking years ago. I see the reasoning, but that doesn't make it any less bullshit.
Western european cuntries aren't on the whole accepting of offensive speech, that interolance is reflected in their laws. Not defending what Irving said, simply his right to say it.
You brits who see this as outrageous, are yourselves heading toward a semi-oppressive nanny state, might wanna change that trend.
if that's coming from an american, i think you should look to your own mess first, especially when it involves half the worlds military expenditure, 10,000 nukes and a trigger-happy monkey at the helm
seremtan wrote:if that's coming from an american, i think you should look to your own mess first, especially when it involves half the worlds military expenditure, 10,000 nukes and a trigger-happy monkey at the helm
The real issue is that Austrians need to concern themselves with are ultra right-wingers like Haider and his FPO. With the high unemployment rate in the Eastern parts of Germany, and the influx of Turks and other foreigners "polluting" the German blood, it lends itself all to well to the temptations of nationalism and racism in a country thats proven itself incompetant with such issues. The climate isn't a quarter as a volatile as it was in post-wwI weimar, but the tendancy is perhaps still there... lurking.
