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- Mainstream Media Poodles Reports
Article from:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1777889,00.html
Germany | 15.11.2005
Neo-Nazi Trial Put on Ice After Upset
The trial of notorious Holocaust-denier Ernst Zündel will have to be
rescheduled after the judge disqualified the public defender. She had
appointed a debarred right-wing extremist as her legal assistant.
On the second day of the trial against neo-Nazi Ernst Zündel in Mannheim,
Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen announced that a new lawyer would have to be
assigned to defend the 66-year old.
Attorney Sylvia Stolz had appointed Horst Mahler, a debarred lawyer and
well-known right-wing extremist, as her legal assistant. The judge said this
was legally punishable. He dismissed both Stolz and Mahler from the defense
on the first day of the trial last week.
Meinerzhagen said a new defender would need time to prepare, which was no
longer possible in the midst of the current trial. No date for a new trial
was given.
Zündel, who had been deported by Canada to Germany in March, faces
charges of inciting racial hatred. Meinerzhagen said he would remain in
pre-trial detention and that the trial's collapse was entirely due to the
defense team.
Convicted for right- and left-wing extremism
Bildunterschrift: Horst MahlerMahler spent 1970-1980 in prison after
being convicted for membership in the German left-wing terrorist
organization Red Army Faction (RAF). After leaving jail, he turned his
attention to the extreme right-wing. In January, he was convicted of
inciting racial hatred and sentenced to nine months in jail.
The defense team had earlier in the day attempted to have the judge
recused from the trial for alleged bias, but the court rejected the petition
as unfounded. It also turned down the defense's appeal to have the trial
closed to the public.
The district attorney's office said it was unlikely a new trial would
start before next year.
DW staff (ncy)
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