Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06VIENNA1209
2006-04-27 12:40:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Vienna
Cable title:
Former Freedom Party MP Gudenus Guilty of
how-toVZCZCXRO6694 RR RUEHAG RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG DE RUEHVI #1209 1171240 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 271240Z APR 06 ZDK FM AMEMBASSY VIENNA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3229 INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS VIENNA 001209
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/OHI AND EUR/AGS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KNAR PHUM PGOV AU
SUBJECT: Former Freedom Party MP Gudenus Guilty of
Neonazi Activity
UNCLAS VIENNA 001209
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/OHI AND EUR/AGS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KNAR PHUM PGOV AU
SUBJECT: Former Freedom Party MP Gudenus Guilty of
Neonazi Activity
1. On April 26, the Vienna Criminal Court convicted a
former member of the Upper House of Parliament for the
rightwing/populist Freedom Party (FPO),John Gudenus, to
a suspended one-year prison sentence on the grounds of
having violated Austrian anti-Neo-Nazi law. In public
interviews last year, Gudenus said that the question of
whether gas chambers existed during the Third Reich
should be "examined," claiming that there had been gas
chambers in Poland, but not in the Third Reich. (Note:
Mainstream Austrians know this is untrue. Among other
things, every secondary school student visits the
Mauthausen Concentration Camp near Linz and has the
opportunity to visit that camp's gas chanber.)
2. The court based the sentence on mitigating factors
such as the 65-year old Gudenus' lack of a criminal
record. An aggravating circumstance was the fact that
Gudenus had repeatedly violated anti-Neo-Nazi law.
Gudenus immediately appealed against the verdict.
3. Media commentators welcomed the ruling, explaining
that the comparatively mild sentence was due to Gudenus'
general eccentricity -- which is why no one takes him
seriously any more. They highlight this as the key
difference to the case of British author David Irving,
who had received a three-year non-suspended prison
sentence from the Vienna Criminal Court in February for
having violated neo-Nazi law. Irving had written books
questioning the Holocaust and apologizing for the Nazis
for decades, and there was no indication of a diminished
mental state in his case.
McCAW
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/OHI AND EUR/AGS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KNAR PHUM PGOV AU
SUBJECT: Former Freedom Party MP Gudenus Guilty of
Neonazi Activity
1. On April 26, the Vienna Criminal Court convicted a
former member of the Upper House of Parliament for the
rightwing/populist Freedom Party (FPO),John Gudenus, to
a suspended one-year prison sentence on the grounds of
having violated Austrian anti-Neo-Nazi law. In public
interviews last year, Gudenus said that the question of
whether gas chambers existed during the Third Reich
should be "examined," claiming that there had been gas
chambers in Poland, but not in the Third Reich. (Note:
Mainstream Austrians know this is untrue. Among other
things, every secondary school student visits the
Mauthausen Concentration Camp near Linz and has the
opportunity to visit that camp's gas chanber.)
2. The court based the sentence on mitigating factors
such as the 65-year old Gudenus' lack of a criminal
record. An aggravating circumstance was the fact that
Gudenus had repeatedly violated anti-Neo-Nazi law.
Gudenus immediately appealed against the verdict.
3. Media commentators welcomed the ruling, explaining
that the comparatively mild sentence was due to Gudenus'
general eccentricity -- which is why no one takes him
seriously any more. They highlight this as the key
difference to the case of British author David Irving,
who had received a three-year non-suspended prison
sentence from the Vienna Criminal Court in February for
having violated neo-Nazi law. Irving had written books
questioning the Holocaust and apologizing for the Nazis
for decades, and there was no indication of a diminished
mental state in his case.
McCAW