Whoa!! British historian convicted of denying the Holocaust, sentenced to 3 years (not strange at all?)

(21 Feb 2006) SHOTLIST

1. Wide of the court room
2. Three security officials
3. Elmar Kresbach, David Irving's lawyer, surrounded by media
4. Audience seating
5. Chair and microphone
6. Wide shot of Judiciary taking their seats
7. Judges at the bench
8. Stack of papers and books
9. Elmar Kresbach surrounded by cameras
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Elmar Kresbach, David Irving's Lawyer:
"I would say it was a little bit of a message trial.
Q: Do you think three years is..
A: Is too strong a message, yeah. It would have been enough to sentence over two years."
11. Wide of media surrounding Kresbach
12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Elmar Kresbach, David Irving's lawyer:
"He told me that he was expecting a certain strictness by the court because he is well known and it is a very well known case, and so he said 'well we will appeal it, that is it.'"
13. Wide of media
14. SOUNDBITE: (German) Michael Klackel, Prosecution Lawyer:
"I have not made any comments on the sentence so far. I have to look very carefully at it and think it over, whether the prosecution can be satisfied with the sentence. At this moment I cannot make any final comment."
15. Three security officials

(FIRST RUN 1230 EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 20 FEBRUARY 2006)
16. Wide shot of court room at Central Court in Vienna
17. David Irving entering the courtroom
18. SOUNDBITE: (English) David Irving, British Historian:
"For me to be standing here on trial for an opinion I expressed 16 years ago as a historian is ridiculous and for Austria to try and pretend it is not a Nazi state in doing so is ridiculous."
19. Cutaway
20. SOUNDBITE: (English) David Irving, British Historian:
"The law is an ass. I think within 12 months the law will have vanished from the Austrian statute book and I am going to be a trial victim."
6. Wide shot of audience with policemen

STORYLINE:

Right-wing British historian David Irving was convicted in Austria on Monday of denying the Holocaust - a crime in a country which once run by the Nazis - and sentenced to three years in prison.

Irving, who had pleaded guilty and insisted during his one-day trial that he had had a change of heart and now acknowledged the Nazis' World War II slaughter of six million Jews, had faced up to 10 years behind bars.

In testimony Irving, said he had "made a mistake" when he said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Irving's lawyer immediately announced he would appeal the sentence.

Elmar Kresbach told reporters he thought the verdict was "too strong" and announced Irving would appeal.

Irving, proclaimed "the law is an ass" and to be tried "for an opinion expressed 16 years ago... is ridiculous."

Irving, 67, has been in custody since his arrest in November on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of six (m) million Jews.

Handcuffed and wearing a navy blue suit, he arrived at court carrying a copy of one of his most controversial books - "Hitler's War," which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.

Irving's trial was held amid new - and fierce - debate over freedom of expression in Europe, where the printing and reprinting of unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has triggered violent protests worldwide.

Kresbach said last month the controversial Third Reich historian was getting up to 300 pieces of fan mail a week from supporters around the world, and that while in detention he was writing his memoirs under the working title "Irving's War."








Irving has had numerous run-ins with the law over the years.


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