Saturday, May 20, 2006

Another Holocaust denial trial in Europe


On March 3, 2006 Georges Theil, 65, a retired telecommunications engineer, had seen his conviction for “Holocaust denial” upheld by the court of appeal of Limoges. He was guilty of sending, in a period running from April to June 2004, a booklet of his own revisionist writings to just a small number of persons in that region, and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment without remission and a fine of €30,000, ordered to pay €9,300 in damages, and hit with still other sanctions as well.

On May 17, in Lyon the same Georges Theil was convicted on appeal for having made a brief revisionist statement on October 14, 2004 in front of a local television journalist's camera, and sentenced to a new six-month prison term without remission, fined another €10,000, and ordered to pay €40,500 in damages as well as to cover the costs of having the judgment published in two newspapers (probably as much as €8,000).

Theil was convicted of violating the Gayssot law of 1990, which forbids "contestation of crimes against humanity." Since its passing the law has been invoked only to forbid questioning, challenging, or research into the Holocaust.

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