The struggle for freedom of speech continues in Germany and Europe

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

-- 






The struggle for freedom of speech continues in Germany and Europe

Sylvia Stolz, the courageous lawyer for Ernst Zundel. has now been 
charged by the German government with "denying the Holocaust."

The German government's efforts to repress freedom of speech, 
opinion, and conscience have reached new depths. In Germany, 
expressing any disagreement with any aspect of the 
officially-sanctioned Holocaust story is punishable by imprisonment. 
Last month Ernst Zundel, a non-violent 67 year old resident of Canada 
and the United States, was sentenced to five years in prison for 
simply expressing opinions that differ with the "official position" 
of prominent Jewish Holocaust promoters and the German government. 
Such imprisonment is of course a mockery of the principle of the 
"free speech" claimed by Europe and the United States.

The Associated Press reported:

Prosecutors said they are seeking a ban on Stolz working as a lawyer. 
"This foreign occupation seems threatened and insulted," Stolz said. 
"So telling the truth is prosecuted for slander and the people who 
speak the truth are silenced, whether they're attorneys, doctors, 
engineers or any other profession."

In Germany, not only have authorities imprisoned thousands for 
expressing their opinions, they are also acting to deny the 
fundamental rights of the accused.

One of the founding principles of human rights in the West is that an 
accused person has the right to full legal defense. If a lawyer can 
be charged with a crime and imprisoned for simply defending his 
client, one more pillar of human rights has fallen. Defense attorneys 
have been charged with the crime of "Holocaust denial" by simply 
arguing that the opinions of their clients are based on evidence that 
shows their clients did not "defame" or "incite" but simply stated 
historical truth.

In Germany, defendants on trial for challenging aspects of the 
popular version of the Holocaust are not allowed to present evidence 
showing that their respective opinions are in fact truthful. Whether 
or not the Holocaust occurred as it is popularly presented, free 
speech advocates argue that denial of defendants and their lawyers 
the right to defend the factual basis of their client's assertions, 
suggests that their evidence is so convincing that authorities must 
suppress them.

The courageous woman lawyer, Sylvia Stolz, who defended Ernst Zundel, 
has now herself been charged with "Holocaust denial" for simply 
defending her client by attempting to show that her client's specific 
assertions were truthful and accurate.

Even in the heresy trials of the Inquisition, held up as the ultimate 
in oppression of human rights and freedom, attorneys did not face 
imprisonment for defending their heliocentric clients.

Such actions by Germany are meant not only to punish men such as 
Ernst Zundel for their heretical and blasphemous opinions, but to 
create a climate where defense attorneys themselves cannot defend 
their clients adequately. How will the accused find adequate defense 
attorneys if the lawyers themselves might face imprisonment for 
simply asserting their clients innocence?

Ernst Zundel is the most important political prisoner in the Western 
World. His imprisonment along with men such as Gemar Rudolf and 
thousands of others are testimony to the fact that free speech, 
thought and expression in parts of Europe is a lie. It also shows the 
moral hypocrisy and evil of a mass media that forever touts freedom 
of speech and expression, but does not rise up in moral outrage at 
this abject denial of the most basic of human rights, freedom of 
speech.

Freedom of speech only has meaning when unpopular ideas are allowed.

Popular opinions need no principles of free speech and expression.

If not, then the most repressive regimes in history could be said to 
allow free speech.

—David Duke


Source Link:
<http://www.davidduke.com/general/1946_1946.html>http://www.davidduke.com/general/1946_1946.html