Yesterday was our day in the Knoxville District Court - and
an education it was for me and, I believe, for the handful of people who
attended. Our (partial) petition, as I explained in previous ZGrams, was our
plea to the Judge to order the authorities to bring Ernst Zundel back from
the Canadian Gulag for habeas corpus here in Tennessee. Our entire
submission is much more complex than that, but we had put the habeas corpus
item on the "expedited track," hoping that we would be granted
some kind of relief for the egregious government violation.
We had a compelling human rights violation story on our side
- the government, in this case the defendant(s), had nothing but brash
chutzpah and brute "law". And arbitrarily and shamelessly, they
used that "law" to beat down our petition.
Today I won't go into some of the interesting details of
what was argued, and what was not allowed - I hope to get the transcript
before long to put it on the Net. You can get the general drift of this
amazing and disturbing all-day hearing from the Knoxville Sentinel write-up
below. I will describe this day in more detail for our active financial
supporters in our December Power Letter. Let me just add that only PART of
our submission was denied. The case is still "alive" - and there
will be a follow-up, believe me!
Judge can't help denier's wife Woman trying to free
husband, who disputes Holocaust, jailed in Canada
By JAMIE SATTERFIELD, satterfield at knews.com Knox News -
November 19, 2004
The wife of a prominent Holocaust denier made an appeal
Thursday to a federal judge in Knoxville to help free her husband, who was
booted from his Sevier County home last year and wound up in a Canadian
prison.
"If somebody smashed my window, I have recourse with
the law," Ingrid Rimland Zundel said. "If somebody smashes my
life (by deporting her husband), I have no recourse. This is a political
vendetta. This was a setup. My husband only searches for the truth."
U.S. District Court Senior Judge James H. Jarvis found
himself in a troubling position.
He wanted to help but could not.
"This is a tough, tough case for me," Jarvis
said. "But I've said it before, tough cases make bad, bad law."
Jarvis was disturbed not because he sympathized with the
controversial views of Ernst Zundel, 65, but because it appeared that
Zundel's case was driven, in part, by politics.
"His home country, Germany, wanted him for his
preachings, writings on the Holocaust," Jarvis said, noting those
views were published on Zundel's well-known Zundelsite Internet page.
"This would be a felony under German law."
But Jarvis opined that he ultimately had no jurisdiction
over Zundel's fate. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service's
decision to scuttle Zundel out of the country "was a discretionary
one not subject to review by this court."
Zundel is a German-born graphic artist and publisher whose
involvement with the 1980 pamphlet "Did Six Million Really Die?"
rocketed him to infamy as a Holocaust denier and - as some allege - a
neo-Nazi.
He lived in Canada for decades but had long been denied
citizenship. In 2000, Zundel entered the United States under the visitor
visa waiver program, which allows people to visit the United States for 90
days at a time without having to go through the process of getting a visa.
However, as part of that program, Zundel had to sign a
form in which he agreed to waive any rights to contest deportation if INS
chose to take such action.
While in the United States, Zundel married Rimland and
applied for an INS "adjustment" to his status here as a result
of that marriage. In the meantime, his visitor visa expired.
In February 2003, Zundel was arrested at his home in Wears
Valley, where he was preparing to open an art gallery, and deported to
Canada. Once there, he was imprisoned and accused by the Canadian
government of being a threat to national security. If he loses that court
battle, he will be returned to Germany, where he faces a five-year prison
term for his Holocaust views.
Memphis attorney Rehim Babaoglu handled the paperwork for
Zundel's effort to get an INS adjustment. He testified Thursday that he
had never before had a client kicked out of the country for overstaying
his visa when that client was married to a U.S. citizen and had applied
for an adjustment.
"I've never seen anything like this in my
practice," Babaoglu said. "My opinion is someone took a
shortcut, did what they wanted to do, had an agenda. I think the
government's got another agenda."
Justice Department attorney Russell J.E. Verby and
Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Bauknight argued the INS had every right
to deport Zundel.
"He overstayed his welcome under the visa waiver
program," Verby said. "We have yet to see a law or regulation
the INS violated."
California attorney Bruce Leichty, who argued the case for
Zundel on Thursday, said he was not sure yet if he would file an immediate
appeal of Jarvis' decision or try to drum up more evidence to try to get
the judge to reconsider.
Jarvis said it was unlikely he would change his mind.
"It's a hard decision, but I think it's the right
decision," Jarvis said.
The judge did, however, add a comment to Canadian
authorities.
"(Zundel's) wife, she's a citizen, and she has
rights, and she's hurt by this," Jarvis said. "Surely, the
Canadian courts will listen to her as a United States citizen, perhaps
give her some relief."
Ingrid Zundel has not seen her husband since he was
imprisoned. She said her husband fears she, too, would be arrested if she
went to Canada.
"My husband is not a violent person," she said.
"He cries if a kitten gets hurt."
Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308.
