Imprisoned – Holocaust denier Toben loses appeal

August 13, 2009 by Henry Benjamin
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Dr Fredrick Toben is behind bars in Adelaide tonight following the loss of his appeal against a three months’ sentence for contempt of court.

Fredrick Toben

Fredrick Toben

The 64-yr-old had been found guilty of 24 counts of contempt of court following his disregarding court orders barring him from publishing articles on the Adelaide Institute web site of an antisemitic and/or Holocaust denying nature.

The Full Court of the Federal Court rejected Toben’s appeal in Adelaide late this afternoon. Toben’s counsel had claimed that the three months’ sentence imposed in May by Justice Bruce Lander was too severe but Justice Jeffrey Spender upheld Justice Lander’s decision stating  that “given the seriousness of the contempt, a three-month sentence cannot be said to be excessive or unwarranted.”‘

In handing down the decision to reject the appeal, the Court made it clear that “this is not a case concerning the Holocaust, or gas chambers, or the Jews.

This case was and is about the orders of the Court.”

Current president of the ECAJ, Robert Goot, told J-Wire: “Dr Toben’s contempt was contumelious and today the Court described Dr Toben’s contempt as ‘the most serious’ and committed ‘in a serial way’.”

He added: “The ECAJ has been dealing with Dr Toben’s outrageous denial that the Holocasut occurred and that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, for 13 years. It is hoped that Dr Toben will heed the views of the Court in future.”

Toben, who had spoken in court for more than eight hours, was denied any further statements following the decision. As he left the court, he was arrested by Australian Federal Police, handcuffed and driven to jail.

The comtempt of court had as its basis the 2002 decision awarded to Jeremy Jones, on behalf of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, who successfully claimed that the material published on Toben’s web site constituted a breach of the Federal Racial Hatred Act.

Jones told J-Wire: “Toben showed contempt for human decency. he showed contemot for history….but most importantly, he has shown contempt for the laws of Australia.”

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