Against extradition after judge throws case out of court

An alleged Holocaust denier has won his fight against extradition to Germany.

Dr Gerald Toben, 64, is accused of publishing anti-Semitic material on his website.

The Australian academic is wanted in Germany to stand trial for posting the alleged items between 2000 and 2004.

The German authorities claim they are 'of an anti-Semitic and/or revisionist nature'.

In the European Arrest Warrant issued in October 2004, he is accused of approving of or playing down the murder of the Jews by the Nazis.

But District Judge Daphne Wickham ruled the warrant invalid today at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, saying it contained inadequate detail about the offences.

It neither states the name of the website nor where the propaganda is said to have been published from - only referring to the 'world-wide internet'.

After discharging Toben, Judge Wickham granted him bail pending an appeal after imposing strict conditions which include a £100,000 security.

Other conditions include residence at an approved address, written confirmation from the Australian High Commission of which passports he holds, and not to access the internet.

He is also banned from giving press interviews.

Judge Wickham added that she had not been required to decide at this stage whether the alleged crimes were valid extradition offences.

Grey wavy-haired Toben, smartly dressed in a suit, appeared pleased on hearing the judge's decision from the glass-fronted dock at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

The public gallery was packed with supporters of Toben.

Toben claims he will not get a fair trial in Germany.

The controversial author was reportedly jailed in 1999 at Mannheim prison for breaching Germany's Holocaust Law Section 130, prohibiting anyone from 'defaming the dead'.

Toben's Adelaide Institute website has drawn criticism for many years.

In 2000 he fought an order by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission in Australia to remove its 'offensive' content.

The commission claimed it breached Australia's Racial Discrimination Act.

Toben completed his Dr of Philosophy course at the University of Stuttgart in 1977 and taught schools and colleges all over the world.

He founded the Adelaide Institute and is the author of at least eight books on education, political science and history.

At an earlier hearing he accused the 'world press' of wrongly portraying him as 'horrible, terrible, vicious...I must respond to that, because this is nonsense.' 

Attempting to reassure the court he would not jump bail, he added: 'The world is my prison. 'I'm well known and to suggest there's no honour in my person is to slander me.'

By Charlotte Gill

Source >  Mail Online | oct 30

Copyright © - EFFEDIEFFE - all rights reserved.
Link a questo articolo : http://www.effedieffe.com/content/view/5044/152/