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Sunday, January 14, 2007 - Page updated
at 12:00 AM

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EU to debate penalty for Holocaust denial

By Dan Bilefsky

The New York Times

BERLIN — Germany wants to use its European Union presidency to push
through legislation that would make denying the Holocaust punishable by
stiff prison sentences in all 27 of the union's member states.

Germany's justice minister, Brigitte Zypries, said Thursday night that
Germany's commitment to combating racism and xenophobia — and keeping the
memory of the Holocaust alive — was both an enduring historical obligation
and a present-day political necessity.

"We have always said that it can't be the case that it should still be
acceptable in Europe to say the Holocaust never existed and that 6 million
Jews were never killed," she said. Under the German proposal, she said,
those who deny the Nazi slaughter of Jews during World War II could face
up to three years in prison if convicted.

Zypries said the proposal, which will be debated by the bloc's justice
ministers in the next six months, would also seek to criminalize racist
declarations that are an incitement to violence against a person or group.
The aim, she said, was to harmonize national legal systems in their
approach to combating racism and xenophobia.

Unifying the handling of hate crimes in countries with vastly different
legal cultures could prove difficult, legal analysts said. European
leaders have been unanimous in condemning those who deny the Holocaust,
and they sharply criticized the Iranian government for sponsoring a
conference that sought to cast doubt on it.

But the question of whether to criminalize such acts has divided
Europe. Germany sees a European Union law on denial as a moral imperative,
but other countries, like Britain, Italy and Denmark, have resisted common
rules as infringing on free speech and civil liberties.

Two years ago, Luxembourg tried to use its presidency of the European
Union to push through similar legislation but was blocked by Italy.

Zypries said she was confident that Germany could succeed in overcoming
such resistance since Italy, now led by a left-of-center prime minister,
Romano Prodi, had dropped its opposition. But she said the legislation
would have to be narrow in scope to gain support.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

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