ADELAIDE, S.A. — Holocaust® denier Fredrick Töben has been
taken into custody to serve a three-month jail term over publishing
[alleged] offensive material on the Internet.
The 64-year-old was taken from the Federal Court in Adelaide by
Australian Federal Police today after losing his appeal against his
conviction for contempt of court.
The full court of the Federal Court also ruled that his jail term,
originally imposed in May this year, was in no way excessive.
“In our opinion, the sentence of three months cannot, on any stretch
of the imagination, be considered excessive or unwarranted,” the
three-judge panel said.
The judges said Töben also had a disregard for the orders of the
court and had acted to undermine the authority of the court.
Earlier this year, Töben was found guilty on 24 counts of contempt
for ignoring a previous court order preventing him from publishing
[so-called] racist material on the Adelaide Institute website. When
he later imposed a three-month sentence, Justice Bruce Lander said
Töben had continued to breach those 2002 orders, which prevented
him from publishing specific anti-Semitic material.
The 2002 orders stemmed from a racial discrimination case brought
against him by Jeremy Jones, a former president of the Executive
Council of Australian Jewry.
Denied right to final statement
In his final submissions today, counsel for Töben, David Perkins,
suggested the material published on the Adelaide Institute website,
which questioned whether the Holocaust® even occurred, was
just a “drop in the bucket” compared to the amount of revisionist
material available on the Internet.
But in their verdict, the judges said the case before them was not
about the Holocaust®, gas chambers or the execution of Jews
during World War II. They said it was about whether or not Töben
had complied with orders of the court.
“Obedience to the court is not optional,” they said.
As the court rose, Töben asked if he could say something to the
judges, only to be cut off by Justice Jeffrey Spender who simply
said, “No”.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25924475-12377,00.html