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    Conviction of bishop for denying Holocaust upheld

    AP – Mon, Jul 11, 2011

    BERLIN (AP) — An appeals court on Monday upheld the conviction of a British bishop who denied the Holocaust in an interview with a Swedish TV station that was rebroadcast over the Internet in Germany.

    The Regensburg court on Monday confirmed last year's incitement conviction of Bishop Richard Williamson, though it lowered his punishment to a fine of euro6,500 ($9,136) from the original euro10,000, according to DAPD news agency.

    Judge Birgit Eisvogel said the fine was reduced to reflect Williamson's financial circumstances. The bishop did not attend Monday's ruling, and his defense team said it would file a new appeal.

    Williamson's attorney had argued that the bishop was asked leading questions by Swedish station SVT and that he did not think the comments would be seen in Germany.

    The 71-year-old said in the 2008 interview that he did not believe Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany.

    Williamson is a member of the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X. He and others from the society were excommunicated in 1988 after they were consecrated without papal consent.

    Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of St. Pius X, has distanced his organization from Williamson since the interview aired on Jan. 21, 2009, and ordered him to keep quiet.

    The same day the interview aired, Pope Benedict XVI lifted Williamson's excommunication, unleashing a torrent of criticism and threatening the Vatican's relations with Jews.

    Benedict has since said that had he known of Williamson's views, he wouldn't have rehabilitated him at the time.

     

    178 comments

    • tucson
      tucson  •  10 mths ago
      People like bishop Richard Williamson and David Irving dialogue are very important, serving as inspiration for such high profile figures as Anders Behring Breivik.
    • Cameron Sills
      Cameron Sills  •  10 mths ago
      To everyone that is asking “What about his freedom of speech?” That is a United States Constitutional right. Germany is not the United States. This should be a big word of caution to those of you who think that the US should be more like Europe. To those of you, who are spouting hatred for the Jewish community, shame on you. You are no better than Hitler, the mindless rabble that followed him, or some two bit KKK member. If you believe the holocaust didn’t happen then maybe I can make you believe that the US civil war didn’t take place either, or maybe I can sell you a bridge for a super low price. Wake up people. Do your homework and dig your brains out from under your bed and relearn how to use them.
      • Patrick
        Patrick 10 mths ago
        Well said. Thanks for elevating this conversation, and concentrating on the facts of the case.
      • mike r
        mike r 10 mths ago
        no tears for the natives of america......uh?
      • Abogado
        Abogado 10 mths ago
        What happens in Europe and CANADA can and probably will happen in the US. We know where the trial took place.
        Restriction of free speech such as this is wrong wherever it is practiced.
    • Fred
      Fred  •  10 mths ago
      I guess I'm missing something here. How does a British Citizen break a law in Germany while being interviewed on Swedish Television. Can someone explain how this works in the European Union. As while I disagree with this man's thoughts and beliefs. I just don't see how he could have violated a law in a place he was never in. Is it just the currency that crosses borders or did the law slip in there as well.
      • dave
        dave 10 mths ago
        The same way it will work here in the very near future.
      • moishe
        moishe 10 mths ago
        To the German government:You are idiots for making any belief that someone holds a crime. I now boycott every German product and hope the rest of the non jewish world will join little old me in a worldwide boycott of all things German.
      • tucson
        tucson 10 mths ago
        Yeah, no more using jewish cat-scan or jewish airplanes, neither bagels or jewish mobile phones processors or whathever... did I say UAV already? F22 Raptor helmets? Pff, just forget about it, lol :-)
    • suni
      suni  •  10 mths ago
      There is so much hisotrical evidence such as eye witnesses, the survivors of the concentration camps, the documentary films prodeced by the allied army and the war time records of the Soviets. This fellow must be insane to deny the Holocaust.
      • mike r
        mike r 10 mths ago
        he did not deny the hollocaust from the headlines.
      • Abogado
        Abogado 10 mths ago
        Insane?
        So if you disagree with an historical event you must be insane?
        Pictures of bodies lying in a heap, film of thin prisoners, eyewitness this and that have no bearing on this issue in this case. Not all the bodies in that heap were jews, eh?
      • no comment
        no comment 10 mths ago
        As for the records kept by the Soviets...I'm sure there's no mention of their own achievements in the area of mass executions like the Katyn Forest events and the deportations of "Socially Undesirable Elements" like Officers,Teachers, Lawyers Town officials..women,.children, old folks, to places like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to work as slaves till they died of cold, malnutrition and disease....millions of them. These people don't count? That wasn't a Holocaust?
    • Lance
      Lance  •  10 mths ago
      To the Jewish cu*t Elise, how many people have you and your people stolen from today? How many pornographic movies have your people filmed today? How many Eastern European girls have your people kidnapped and taken to Israel as child sex slaves (Slavery is legal in Israel)? So if this bishop belongs in a mental ward, where do your people belong? How about... Hell.
      • Elise
        Elise 10 mths ago
        Im actually not jewish , idiot. Im Christian.
      • FSM
        FSM 10 mths ago
        Lance where does all this viterial come from? Where do you comes up with all that bullShit?
      • Babak
        Babak 10 mths ago
        elise maybe you are not jewish but you ARE an idiot. LOL
    • Kotwica
      Kotwica  •  10 mths ago
      In modern times the Holocaust refers to only the Jewish dead at the hands of the Germans. Would it also be a crime to deny the fact that 6 million non-jews also perished at the hands of the Germans?
      Let's not forget the soldiers, sailors and resistance fighters of all countries who perished fighting this scourge of humanity.

      WWII was not only confined to the Jews!
      • Go Figure
        Go Figure 10 mths ago
        You point? There were 62,171,400 to 78,511,500 military and civilian deaths in WW2 depending on where you get your info. None except the Jews were killed just because they were Jewish. Genocide is a terrible thing but then so is war. I don't know where you are from, but here we honor our dead from all wars. This article is about denying an sin against mankind, Genocide.
      • Kotwica
        Kotwica 10 mths ago
        @gofigure
        Oh wait , your right! How about the Roma, Homosexual, handicapped, mentally impaired? None of them were sorted out because of their afflictions, culture or sexual bias?

        Tell me about the very young or the very old that were sorted out to be exterminated because they could not work in the slave camps?

        How about the villagers on the Russian and Polish fronts that were killed, their numbers will never be known, but we keep finding mass graves to this day? Did these people mean nothing because they were not Jewish?

        To counter your point, modern vernacular refers to the Jewish Holocaust and when speaking of the Holocaust only the numbers of the dead Jewish are counted. The Holocaust museum in Washington acknowledges the non-Jewish numbers but does not include them in the Holocaust count.

        You sir fail to acknowledge the fact that genocide occurred around the world in WWII.

        Your point? Tell me exactly what it is, because you see to deny that genocide occurred to anyone but the Jews.

        If you look at my info, I am from Poland and here were are reminded of the atrocities every day. I simply do not want the fact forgotten that many people perished in these camps not just the Jews. Many of my family died in these camps and on the battlefield, and are you so arrogant to imply that we do not honor our dead?
      • mike
        mike 10 mths ago
        gofigure, you are an idiot. how about the gypsies? the gay? other minorities dur that period.

        one thing jew is good at is complain and whine about everything. take it like a man.
    • Matt A
      Matt A  •  10 mths ago
      The Germans went to extremes in their efforts to distance themselves from the Nazi Regime and Holocaust. This shortsightedness and failure to accept part of their history will harm them in the long run. It would be like the U.S denying slavery existed to the extent which it did in the South, or that there was enver discrimination.
    • dontask
      dontask  •  10 mths ago
      You can molest little boys but questioning the holocaust is a crime
    • Do'h
      Do'h  •  10 mths ago
      Put the comment aside. The key is "does Germany has Jurisdiction where the questions were answered, not where it's aired".
    • Bobby
      Bobby  •  10 mths ago
      I understand the he's wrong to deny the holocaust happened, but whatever happened to freedom of speech?! Making it a crime to deny the holocaust is more ridiculous than the act of denying the holocaust....
    • panty-hacker
      panty-hacker  •  10 mths ago
      phewwww, I was going through Holacost news withdrawal, no holacost stories for two days, ahhhhhhhh
    • A
      A  •  10 mths ago
      I know this is a touchy issue, but the man is entitled to his opinion and he should not be criminalized for this. Let each person believe what they want to believe. Moreover, the holocaust of the jews isn't the only holocaust, what about the africans, native indians etc? My opinion all people should be respected and honored equally. God created us all in his image and a jewish person is no greater than a non-jew.
    • ingeborg
      ingeborg  •  10 mths ago
      • Get over this Holocaust already! God sakes, stop milking this cow. Please!
      • Why he does not have the right to say what he believes?
      He did not say in Germany?
      •
      • So now it is illegal to even think a thought and utter it.
      •
      • The holocaust is the ONLY historical event which cannot be researched, questioned or modified. Only JEWS are allowed to write this history. If a non-Jew historian attempts to question any aspect of the holocaust, he will be ostracized. What's wrong with that picture?
      You can bomb Libyans and it's legal but denies the holocaust and you're punished!
      • It is very said Germany has that Law (FREEDOM OF SPEECH)
    • Peace4All
      Peace4All  •  10 mths ago
      This is freedom of speech.................?
    • Shadeaux
      Shadeaux  •  10 mths ago
      I do not side with the man in his beliefs but, it's a crime to have a belief? Something ain't right here.
    • Muzzie
      Muzzie  •  10 mths ago
      holcast denial is a crime in Germany. Are you kidding me? for someone to make a comment, it is a crime? Does not sound like a free country.

      Come on Germany, tear down the wall. Let people think and say what they want, even if they are insane.
    • l c
      l c  •  10 mths ago
      In Germany---you can't show a Nazi symbol---no bent cross or Hitler or SS signs. Don't know if they are trying to deny what happen or keep it from happening again. Have friends there...they told me it's just something you don't do if you value your freedom.
    • Powmia
      Powmia  •  10 mths ago
      This was with a Swedish TV station but aired in Germany,what if I denied it here on yahoo and someone in Germany read it,will I go to jail in Germany?

      I am in no way denying it, just saying.
    • Al
      Al  •  10 mths ago
      To all of us in the United States - this is the kind of thing that could
      happen to us if we keep allowing these politicians to constantly erode
      our freedoms as they do. People should be allowed to beleive in what
      they want without the fear of prosecution for same. (as long as they do
      not hurt others by their beleifs). I do not agree with the bishop's view
      of the holocust, however, I do not beleive that he should be guilty of
      a crime.
    • abdullah g
      abdullah g  •  10 mths ago
      where is freedom of expression now?
     Post a comment
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