Gerd Honsik
Photo: AP
Austrian writer on trial for denying Holocaust
Gerd Honsik, 68, faces up to 20 years' imprisonment if convicted of denying occurrence of systematic slaughter of six million Jews during World War II, promoting Nazi propaganda
An Austrian writer has gone on trial for allegedly defending and promoting aspects of the Nazi era and publicly denying the Holocaust.
Gerd Honsik faces up to 20 years' imprisonment if convicted of denying the occurrence of the Nazis' systematic slaughter of six million Jews during World War II.
The 68-year-old author also was being tried on charges of promoting Nazi propaganda. Both are crimes in Austria.
Honsik wrote a book, "Hitler Innocent?," in which he attempted to justify some Nazi-era crimes. He was originally convicted in 1992 but fled to Spain, where authorities arrested him in October 2007.
Honsik went on trial Monday in Vienna on new charges for articles he allegedly wrote and circulated on the Internet.
