Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part III: The Bunker Scene
David Irving (left) has been sentenced to three years imprisonment in Austria for the crime of Holocaust denial.
Some have argued that his imprisonment amounts to censorship, or constitutes an infringement of free speech. It does not.
If Islamists or other subversives wish to restrict freedom of speech in a country where it is already practiced, they are to be opposed; for by their actions they display their contempt for our laws.
Irving is in precisely the same moral league as such people; for he committed his crime in a country not his own, and one where he could not have failed to have known that the local law criminalised denials of the kind he made.
He deliberately broke Austrian law, and if we wish others to respect British law then Brits must respect theirs; and if he didn't know he was breaking Austrian law then he should have another three years added to his sentence for his stupidity's criminal recklessness.
And what delicious irony resides in Irving receiving his just desserts in German....
posted by Martin at
11:11 pm
3 Comments:
Not so sure about this one. There seems something illogical about it. What's the point of imprisoning him? Seems to me he needs psychiatric help. Or, on a different angle, are you going to imprison everyone on a book-selling scam?
L,
He is lucid enough to have recanted before receiving his sentence, so one would have to believe the Austrian beaks must have considered a therapeutic alternative to be inappropriate.
Being neither Austrian nor Jewish, my view on his imprisonment is that if the Austrians wish to imprison him for breaking Austrian law in Austria, and he has the benefit of counsel in proceeedings which the Austrians know will get wide international coverage, it's really none of my business to cirticise them. It is crystal clear that even though he has recanted, he can't not have known he was committing a crime.
Irving's record with the record probably meant that what aggravated his offence was the fact that it was committed by Irving himself; and for that, he has nobody to blame but himself.
I think the law is stupid.
Irving is not my cup of tea, but free countries having laws about what people can think -- that's just not right.
You are correct though. It is the law of the land, and Austria has every right to imprision those who break their laws -- even the stupid ones.
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