Zundel’s trial begins with lawyer dismissed
Defence team’s plans questioned Court aims for verdict by Nov. 24
MANNHEIM, GERMANY—
Ernst Zundel’s trial opened yesterday with the judge dismissing a defence lawyer, himself a wellknown far-right activist who was convicted of incitement earlier this year.
Zundel, the notorious Holocaust denier who lived in Toronto and Montreal for decades, faces charges of incitement, libel and disparaging the dead — illegal under German law. Ottawa deported him eight months ago after a federal court ruled he posed a threat to national and international security.
Shortly after the trial opened, Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen ordered defence lawyer Horst Mahler dismissed on grounds he was barred from practising earlier this year after he was convicted of incitement for distributing anti- Semitic propaganda. Meinerzhagen further questioned whether the rest of Zundel’s defence team would be prepared to mount a “ regular” case after one of them described Jews as an “ enemy people” in a motion. The trial was adjourned until next Tuesday to allow for a ruling on a defence motion calling for the judge’s removal. The judge, defence lawyer Juergen Rieger said, “ only wants defence lawyers who adopt the views of the prosecution.”
Zundel, wearing jeans and a blazer, said little as he sat among his lawyers. If convicted, the 66year- old could be jailed for up to five years. He insists he is a peaceful campaigner being denied the right to free speech. The International Auschwitz Committee has said survivors of the death camp see the trial as “ an important success” in the international effort against Holocaust deniers who spread antiSemitism over the Internet.
Rieger argued that Zundel was targeted for “stepping on the toes of the Jewish community.”
Zundel ran Samisdat Publishers, a leading distributor of Nazi propaganda. He also provides content to The Zundelsite on the web, which has followers around the world, hundreds of whom demonstrated against his arrest by German authorities in March. German authorities accuse Zundel of decades of anti- Semitic activities, including repeated denials of the Holocaust — a crime in Germany — in documents and on the Internet. Their 20- page indictment cites Zundel’s texts dating from 1999 to 2003, which prosecutors say demonstrate his attempts “ in a pseudo- scientific way, to relieve National Socialism of the stain of the murder of the Jews.”
Zundel “ denied the fate of destruction for the Jews planned by National Socialist powerholders and justified this by saying that the mass destruction in Auschwitz and Treblinka, among others, were an invention of the Jews and served the repression and blackmail of the German people,” it says. The court aims to reach a verdict by Nov. 24. Born in Germany in 1939, Zundel immigrated to Canada in 1958 and lived in Toronto and Montreal until 2001. Canadian officials rejected his citizenship attempts in 1966 and 1994.