ThoughtCrime: 01/19/08
Austria's Fröhlich sentenced to six and a half years for denouncing Holocaust
An Austrian court has sentenced Wolfgang Fröhlich, a former city councilor
to four years in prison for Holocaust denial, adding another
two-and-a-half years of a previous suspended sentence.
Fröhlich pleaded "absolutely not guilty." He had already
served 23 months behind bars since 2003 and was quite shocked
when the court added an additional 29 months. The Austrian
government clearly fears free speech with regard to this one
historical event.
Fröhlich has been found guility of similar charges three
times. Fröhlich was sentenced in
1996 for operating his World War Two Revisionist Website.
He also ran afoul of the court after sending letters to Austrian
members of parliament and Pope Benedict XVI denouncing the Holocaust
as a "Satanic lie."
At Jürgen Graf's 1998 trial, Fröhlich testified that, for technical
reasons, mass gassings with Zyklon B could not have been carried
out in the German concentration camps as alleged. Fröhlich suffered
no legal repercussions for his testimony.
Austria is one of the worst human rights offenders with regard
to limiting freedom of speech and the press. Their laws
regarding Holocaust revisionism and or denial are the most severe
in Europe.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death."
George Orwell
|