Haaretz
Shvat 27, 5767
A German court sentenced a prominent
Holocaust denier extradited from Canada to five years in prison on
Thursday for inciting racial hatred and denying the Nazis murdered six
million Jews.
Ernst Zuendel, publisher of works such as "Did six
million
really die?", was handed the maximum sentence under German law
for Holocaust denial.
Zuendel, 67, has been in custody in Germany
since March 2005 after being deported from Canada. The court would not
release him on bail because of the danger he would flee.
In his
closing statement Zuendel said the court should set up an international
commission of experts to examine the
Holocaust. If the commission
confirmed the gassing of Jews, he told the court he would convene a press
conference to apologize to Jews and other victims.
The trial was
suspended in late 2005 after the judge
dismissed a publicly appointed
defense lawyer when she produced written submissions that appeared to deny
the Holocaust. It resumed just over a year ago.
Zuendel is a German
citizen who has spent much of his life
in Canada and whose name is
sometimes spelled Zundel. He ran a Web site and distributed a publication
called "Germania Rundbrief" denying the Holocaust took place.
There
were posters of Zuendel and other prominent Holocaust deniers at last
year's Holocaust conference in Tehran organized by Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.