Thought crimes
A few days ago we touched upon the ‘reach’ of our judicial system. Today, I notice that
A leading Holocaust denier was arrested as he flew into Britain yesterday, accused of running an internet site that insisted that the Nazis had not murdered millions of Jews. Dr Fredrick Toben was held at Heathrow at the request of the German authorities for publishing “anti-Semitic and/or revisionist” material between 2000 and 2004.
Although Holocaust denial is not an offence in Britain, it is a serious crime in Germany and Dr Toben faces up to five years in prison. The Australian citizen was arrested under a European Arrest Warrant designed to fast-track extraditions.
Dr. Toben, a German national has commited no offence on British soil yet he finds himself arrested & now threatened with so-called fast track extradition to Germany where Holocaust denial is a crime.
Now without doubt Toben is a deeply unpleasent piece of work who holds even more unpleasent beliefs. However firstly I question whether he has even commited an offence on Germany soil & secondly, I ponder the wisdom of assisting the German authorities in abitarilly seizing individuals.
It interesting to consider that HMG seems happy to comply with a foreign government in this case & yet it doesn’t seem to want to apply the same standards to the ‘thought crimes’ of our own home grown Jihadies. Or maybe I am just not getting something here?
Comments
Are there any Dunkirk deniers around? I am not aware of any. If there were, would we seek to lock them up? Unlikely. We may roll our eyes and pity the poor sod in his delusion but wouldn't be so stupid as to prosecute him. To do so would merely give his ideas more publicity.
Why should we do any different for the holocaust and the apparently delusional Dr Toben?
If Dr Toben is the idiot that the authorities imply he is, then surely his "evidence" (or whatever other information he claims he has) will be seen to be the disinformation that his adversaries claim it to be. Hoist by his own petard.
It's not the job of British Courts to act in this way. Then again, I suspect this is all part of the creep creep of unifying us into the European Soviet Union.
A case of "I may not agree with what you say, but I defend your right to say it".
Posted by: Paul | October 3, 2008 10:53 AM
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for
people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
-Noam Chomsky
Posted by: Paul | October 4, 2008 4:07 PM