Spanish court rules out jail sentences for

[Mars]

Spain's Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that Holocaust denial will not be punishable by imprisonment, saying it falls within freedom of speech.

Spanish law had mandated a sentence of up to two years in prison for Holocaust denial. But the court, which deliberated on the case following the trial of a neo-Nazi activist, ruled that such a punishment was unconstitutional.

It did, however, rule that imprisonment is a constitutional punishment for any individual convicted of justifying the Holocaust or any other genocide. Advertisement

The court is expected to release the full ruling in the coming days.

Deliberations on the case began in 1996 with the trial of a Barcelona bookshop owner, Pedro Valera, who had been distributing neo-Nazi material. Valera was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison and a monetary fine, but the Barcelona high court suspended the sentence pending the Constitutional Court ruling.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922334.html

[ships-cat]

A five year sentence for distributing books ?

Sounds like something Adolph would have approved of

Meow Purr.

[keithisco]

Why did I move to Spain?....... this is one of the reasons, Freedom of Speech!

[Moon Monkey]

As long as they are not calling for a new holocaust some sort of mental help and education for them would be much better than jail as they are obviously just misguided. Notice it does uphold punishment for justification of any genocide, not just the WW2 one.

Edited November 12, 2007 by Moon Monkey

[keithisco]

As long as they are not calling for a new holocaust some sort of mental help and education for them would be much better than jail as they are obviously just misguided.

As I always say MM, I never condone ANY incitement to violence, and that includes justifying any genocide.

[Moon Monkey]

As I always say MM, I never condone ANY incitement to violence, and that includes justifying any genocide.

Personally I would draw a distinction between justification of past events and incitement to new ones. Also many genocide 'deniers' are not justifying they are arguing that they didn't happen. That should be their right, it makes them look and sound stupid but if looking and sounding stupid was a crime half the people I see in the streets of the UK should be inside.