Update on the Mannheim Holocaust Heresy Trial / April 26, 2006

zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Mon May 1 11:10:23 EDT 2006






An excerpt from the Power Letter, May 2006, written by Ingrid Rimland Zundel

=====

To our friends around the world:

We have entered a very interesting and, in some ways, scary stage in 
our struggle to bring truth to the world via reporting on the 
Mannheim Holocaust Heresy Trial.  On April 26, there was yet another 
scheduled hearing.  From the few scattered reports I received, it was 
an extraordinary day!  Please take this as a partial summary because 
I don't know what it means and can only speculate.

Here is what I was told:

Ernst was represented by Dr. Schaller and Attorney Bock.  Jürgen 
Rieger was not present.  The two public defenders, who are on 
stand-by, so to speak, were present, as were Sylvia Stolz and Horst 
Mahler - the latter two in the audience.  Again, many spectators 
filled the court room, but the security forces had been reduced in 
numbers.  Ernst was described as "looking good, self-assured and 
vigorous."  The prosecutor, Mr. Grossmann, was not present;  a 
substitute sat in for him.

Dr. Meinerzhagen started by playing a brief ZDF video clip that had 
been produced by a German television team sometime in 1999, as I 
remember it.  I lived at that time in San Diego;  Ernst was still in 
Canada.  The reporters were a husband-wife couple, nice and very 
open-minded, so I thought.  After they filmed me, they went on to 
interview Ernst at the Toronto Zundel-Haus, and Ernst told me 
afterwards that the extended interview went very well indeed. 
Apparently, when it was finally shown all over Germany, it was just a 
sound byte and had become the usual tripe - the theme being 
"Neo-Nazis on the Net" with voice-overs on just how "dangerously" the 
Zundelsite was by hiding behind Freedom of Speech.  Many of our 
supporters saw it at the time, but it came and went, and there was 
absolutely no fallout.  I saw it as one of those "Let's scare the 
unwary..." productions.  I remember the reporters asking me about 
connections with the "skinheads" and I told them that in my entire 
life I had never personally met a skinhead.  I told them skinhead 
were fabrications of a compliant media.

This clip was now played in the courtroom by having it projected 
against a white wall.  One spectator called it "nasty",  two others 
thought it was the old, insignificant baloney meant to scare the 
gullible.

This was followed in the courtroom by a broadcast that Ernst had done 
several years ago via a Russian radio station from what used to be 
Königsberg, now called Kaliningrad.  I remember this story vaguely. 
Ernst had negotiated broadcast time with the Russian owners and had 
been assured that the contract would hold, but as it turned out, he 
was only allowed to broadcast twice before the Holocaust Lobby 
aficionados leaned on the Russkys, twisted some arms - and the 
contract was canceled on the spot.  Dr. Meinerzhagen now allowed to 
play one of these broadcasts in full - apparently lasting almost an 
hour.  I have never heard it, but it was described to me by three 
different people in the courtroom as "simply fabulous" and "Ernst as 
his best."  Ernst addressed himself to the German people and 
explained to them that their government system that passed itself off 
as a "democracy" was, in fact, still a post-war occupation force 
brainwashing the public with a false history and controlling every 
entity that mattered - including the judiciary.  One of the 
spectators, who had been in the courtroom said to me:  "I have no 
explanation.  It was as though Judge Meinerzhagen wanted to exonerate 
Ernst, rather than sentence him... Why else would he have played it?"

Next, without comment, Judge Meinerzhagen read my Open Letter, dated 
February 8, 2006.  Refresh your memory - I published it in a previous 
Power Letter.  We had had plans for Sylvia Stolz to read this letter 
into the record, and we were prepared that the Judge would not allow 
it to be read.  Instead, to our great surprise, he read it himself - 
and with emphasis and feeling! 

I am very proud of that letter;  I wrote and polished it for an 
entire week.  In it, I called a spade a spade.  I feel I wrote 
respectfully but clearly.  Ernst thought that it was "very moving." 
Judge Meinerzhagen read it now, and when he was through, he left 
without further comments, and the hearing was over for the day.

I have absolutely no idea what this means.  Does Dr. Meinerz-hagen 
want to juxtapose the distorted persona of Ernst Zundel in the 
mainstream media with the real Ernst Zundel that we know?  One of the 
attorneys thought that I was too gullible to think that;  that it was 
a sinister ploy.  According to his interpretation, the idea is to 
link Ernst and myself as working in concert and in tandem, and thus, 
by linking us, trying to criminalize not only Ernst but also the 
Zundelsite and, indirectly, me that way.  He thinks that the idea is 
to not only have people but whole (EU?) countries gang up on my 
website!  In other words, censorship of an American website through 
the back door!

(See German Embassy Press Release dated April 18, 2006 below.)

Meanwhile, I am still facing the question as to what to do with Dr. 
Meinerzhagen's invitation to come to Germany to testify.  Ernst 
always chides me for being too trusting and for having difficulty 
seeing the evil design of our political enemies' actions, and he may 
have a point.  At first, when I received that letter, I reacted 
predictably and even joyfully, true to my nature - I thought this was 
a golden opportunity to go to Germany and relieve some of the 
pressure on Ernst by clarifying the facts of the ownership and 
operation of the website.  But when I put out the question on the Net 
and asked for input as to what I should do, I received such a tsunami 
of horrified voices telling me it was a trap and not to go, that I 
changed my mind and began to distrust my own judgment.  The consensus 
is firm that I absolutely should not take the risk and walk into a 
prison situation!  And I know I will not do a video conference if I 
can help it - I have done hundreds of video shows in the early years 
of my literary career, and I hated every one of them with a passion! 
I get rattled and nervous and fiery red in the face having a camera 
focused on me.  I dislike it intensely - I know I am much better in 
expressing my thoughts if I can do so in contemplative writing.

What will happen in the end is still open, but I do have competent 
legal counsel, and I have instructed one of my attorneys to draft a 
response stressing that I am an American citizen protected by the 
Constitution and the First Amendment, and that I consider the laws 
and conventions of Germany of no relevance to me.  But I must tell 
you that I am between a rock and a hard place - I fear that if I 
refuse to answer at all, it will be construed as some "guilt" on my 
part, and if I testify, I yield jurisdiction to Germany which I don't 
need to do, even according to Dr. Meinerzhagen's letter.  It may well 
be that I won't have a choice, because according to a press release 
that you can double-check on the US-based German Embassy website, 
dated 18 April  2006 (!), we now get this - imagine!

[start]

German Minister of Justice Zypries and US Attorney General Gonzales 
Sign Bilateral Agreements for Mutual Legal Assistance

German Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries and US Attorney General 
Alberto R. Gonzales met today, April 18, for bilateral talks on 
German-US judicial cooperation. Within the scope of those talks, they 
signed two supplementary treaties to the German-US extradition treaty 
of 1978 and to the bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty of 2003.

"German and US authorities have been working closely together in 
criminal prosecution for many years in an atmosphere of mutual trust. 
Regrettably, the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 have clearly 
underscored the necessity for close cooperation among criminal 
prosecution authorities. At the same time, we must continue to be 
able to build upon a reliable legal foundation which allows both 
sides to shape cooperation consistent with their constitutional law 
princi-ples," said Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries.

The supplementary treaties signed today complement the existing 
bilateral agreements with regulations that had been agreed upon by 
the EU Justice Ministers and are the subject of two agreements 
concluded between the EU and the USA. The aim of these agreements is 
to create harmonized contract-ual foundations for cooperation in 
criminal matters between the USA and the Member States of the 
European Union, and thereby modernize the existing bilateral 
agreements with a view toward meeting the challenges of fighting 
terrorism and cross-border organized crime.

Minister Zypries said: "With the supplementary treaties signed today, 
we are creating the conditions for allowing the agreements on mutual 
legal assistance in criminal matters and extradition concluded 
between the European Union and the USA to take effect in relations 
between Germany and the USA as well."

Extradition Treaty

An extradition treaty has been in effect between Germany and the USA 
since 1978. For both countries, it forms the foundation for the 
extradition of individuals sought by the judicial authorities of the 
other country for the purpose of criminal prosecution or enforcement 
of sentence. The supplementary treaty signed today complements this 
treaty - for example, with regulations involving protection of 
privacy. Unchanged in the amended extradition treaty is that no 
individual sought will be extradited from Germany to the USA if he is 
threatened there with the death penalty. A precondition for every 
extradition is that the criminal offence concerned is subject to 
criminal penalties both pursuant to the law of the requested and the 
requesting state, and is subject to deprivation of liberty for a 
minimum period of at least one year. Additionally, the supplementary 
treaty simplifies the procedure for notarization and forwarding of 
extradition documents, which has thus far been quite complicated.

Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement

Germany and the USA have also been cooperating intensively for many 
years on other mutual assistance matters. This might involve, for 
example, the examination of witnesses, the seizure of evidence, or 
the service of summons and other documents at the request of the 
other state. The German judicial authorities have been able to 
provide this type of legal assist-ance even without a contractual 
basis; this is based upon the Act on International Mutual Legal 
Assistance in Criminal Matters. The German-American Mutual Legal 
Assistance Treaty signed in October 2003 by Germany and the USA 
places this cooperation onto a foundation which is binding under 
international law.

The supplementary treaty signed today complements the bilateral 
treaty, among other aspects with regulations on the formation of 
joint investigation teams, the possibility of video examination of 
witnesses and experts, as well as the investi-gation of holders of 
certain bank accounts. These regulations are also oriented to the 
agreement concluded between the European Union and the USA.

[end]

What do you read into this press release?  It sounds to me that any 
EU country could request my extradition if somebody, some country or 
some individual within the EU countries  decides that the content of 
the Zundelsite is "criminal."  And here I am, having lived on the 
American Continent since I was 24 years old and never ever having 
been in conflict with the law!  I don't want to think that yet 
another hit squad could come racing up my hill with their hands on 
their guns and kidnap me as they kidnapped my husband - but these 
liars and con-men are desperate as their lies unravel before the 
world's very eyes, and anything is possible.

Again, I ask for your input.  What do you make of this latest?

Ingrid Zundel
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