Sept. 7


AUSTRIA:

Austria rejects Holocaust denier's appeal


Austria's highest court rejected an appeal by right-wing British
historian David Irving and upheld his conviction for denying the
Holocaust, the Austria Press Agency reported Monday.

The Supreme Court denied the appeal during a closed session last week, APA
said, citing a preliminary communication from the court. A court spokesman
did not return repeated calls for confirmation.

In February, a Vienna state court convicted Irving of denying the
Holocaust and sentenced him to three years in prison.

During his one-day trial, Irving pleaded guilty and 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."

A decision on an appeal of Irving's sentence is still pending, APA
reported. Under Austrian law, in order to request a reduced sentence,
Irving had to appeal both the conviction and the sentence together.

Irving has been in custody in Austria since his November arrest on charges
stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 for which he was
accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews. He has
contended that most of those who died at concentration camps like
Auschwitz succumbed to diseases such as typhus rather than execution.

The court convicted Irving under a 1992 law, which applies to "whoever
denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National
Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in
a print publication, in broadcast or other media."

(source: Associated Press)