Revisionist historian loses court case

DPA, 27 June 2003

SYDNEY - A German-born Australian who claims the Holocaust did not happen Friday lost his appeal against a court order to stop him from publishing his "offensive and insulting" views on the internet. Director of the right-wing Adelaide Institute Dr Frederick Toben doubted the Holocaust on his website and claimed that Jewish people who disagreed with his views were of limited intelligence.

The Federal Court ruled such material contravened the Racial Discrimination Act and ordered Toben to remove it. Tobin then took the matter before the full bench of the Federal Court which also dismissed his appeal. Speaking outside the court, Jeremy Jones, president of the Executive Council of the Australian Jewry, welcomed the ruling.

"I think it's a very important victory for all Australians concerned with human rights," he said. "There were challenges to the law and these challenges were dismissed and in our particular case we're very happy because our conclusions about the document were agreed to by the judges." Two years ago a German court sentenced Toben to 10 months in jail for distributing leaflets in Germany that denied Jews were killed in large numbers during the Second World War. He served seven months of that sentence.

Germany's highest court, the Federal Court, ruled after his release that Toben could be prosecuted under German law for inflammatory comments on the Internet because Germans had access to the Adelaide Institute's web site. Toben said at the time he might voluntarily return to Germany to stand trial on the charge which would earn him a possible two-and-a-half year sentence.