Irving trial starts in Austria

Gilps · February 20, 2006

Looks like he's going for the 'only joking' defence

Irving Holocaust trial under way

British historian David Irving has pleaded guilty in a court in Vienna to charges of denying the Holocaust.

The charges relate to a speech and an interview he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Mr Irving, 68, faces up to 10 years in jail under Austrian law.

As he arrived at the court, he told reporters that some of his views had changed, saying there were gas chambers and that "millions of Jews died".

Holocaust denial is a criminal offence in Austria.

Court authorities have said they expect demonstrations by right-wing supporters during the trial.

Mr Irving was arrested in November when he went to Austria to give a lecture to a far-right student fraternity.

He was stopped by police as he was driving on a motorway in the south of the country and has been held in custody since then.

'I've changed'

Mr Irving arrived in court room, handcuffed, wearing a blue suit, and carrying a copy of Hitler's War, one of many books he has written on the Nazis, and which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.

In the past he has claimed that Adolf Hitler knew little, if anything, about the Holocaust, and that the gas chambers were a hoax.

In 2000 a British court threw out a libel action he had brought, and declared him "an active Holocaust denier... anti-Semitic and racist".

On Monday, before the trial began, he told reporters: "I'm not a Holocaust denier. Obviously, I've changed my views.

"History is a constantly growing tree - the more you know, the more documents become available, the more you learn, and I have learned a lot since 1989."

Asked if he admitted the existence of the Holocaust, he replied: "I would call it the Jewish tragedy in World War II."

"Yes, there were gas chambers," he said. "Millions of Jews died, there is no question. I don't know the figures. I'm not an expert on the Holocaust."

Plea for leniency

Of his guilty plea, he told reporters: "I have no choice."

He said it was "ridiculous" that he was being tried for expressing an opinion.

"Of course it's a question of freedom of speech... I think within 12 months this law will have vanished from the Austrian statute book," he said.

Mr Irving's lawyer, Elmar Kresbach, told the BBC that he would be asking for "a certain leniency in sentencing".

"His lecture happened 17 years ago. He is an English citizen, he doesn't live in Austria, [he is] 68-years-old. He is a historian who is well known. He is not really dangerous, especially in Austria," he said

JohnnyH · February 20, 2006

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