Haaretz
Shvat 23, 5766
VIENNA - Austrian
prosecutors in the trial of right-wing British historian David Irving
filed an appeal Tuesday to contest his three-year prison sentence, saying
it was too lenient.
"The public prosecutor believes the ruling was
too lenient in light of a possible sentence of up to 10 years and Irving's
special importance to right wing radicals," said Walter Geyer, spokesman
for the public prosecutor's office in the Austrian capital
Vienna.
Irving on Monday pleaded guilty to denying the Holocaust, a
crime in Austria. During the daylong trial, he insisted he had a change of
heart and that he now acknowledged the Nazis' World War II slaughter of 6
million Jews. Irving also acknowledged 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."
Irving's lawyer, Elmar Kresbach,
said after the verdict was announced late Monday that he would appeal the
ruling. He has already done so, according to the Austria Press Agency.
Kresbach was not immediately available for comment Tuesday
afternoon.
Kresbach also told reporters that Irving would likely
not serve the full three-year term because of various factors, including
his age.
Irving is the author of nearly 30 books, including
"Hitler's War," which challenges the extent of the Holocaust, and has
contended most of those who died at concentration camps such as Auschwitz
succumbed to diseases such as typhus rather than execution.