Total Victory in Töben Case!

By Lady Michèle Renouf

On the afternoon of 19th November 2008, while the British Parliament debased itself in an act of homage to the President of a bandit state, a small group of campaigners won a major victory for freedom of debate with the release of a jailed historian.

Australian academic Dr. Fredrick Töben had been held in London’s Wandsworth Prison since his arrest at Heathrow Airport on 1st October. Though not accused of any offence against English law, he was detained under a European Arrest Warrant issued by the German authorities, who sought to put him on trial in Mannheim District Court for the “crime” of publishing historical source critical opinions on the internet.

Such opinions are criminalised by the notorious “Section 130” of the German Criminal Code, and Dr. Töben was facing a five year prison sentence. A few weeks ago the Mannheim prosecutor Andreas Grossmann boasted to the press that he expected Dr. Töben to be in a German prison by early next year. Grossmann also indicated his inquisitorial pride in the fact that those incarcerated for their opinions in Germany “have little chance of getting out before the end of their full sentence,” because of their refusal to recant.

Happily Mr. Grossmann’s hubris met Nemesis in the Miss Marple form of District Judge Daphne Wickham at the City of London Magistrates Court in Horseferry Road, who ruled that the German warrant was invalid.

Judge Wickham upheld the argument of Dr. Töben’s defence barrister Ben Watson that the German authorities had not given sufficient detail in their warrant as to the exact nature of Dr. Töben’s “crime” – a deficiency which proved impossible to rectify, perhaps because of the vagueness of the very concept of ‘Holocaust’ in the German law, which itself does not specify what may or may not be “denied” and does not even mention the supposedly “obvious” method of industrial mass murder by gassing. The authorities had referred merely to “worldwide internet publication” of historical arguments forbidden under Section 130, without specifying exactly which web page or email was concerned, or when it was published, or exactly where it was published. The warrant failed even to specify the manner in which Dr. Töben had infringed Section 130, which refers vaguely to arguments which approve, deny or minimise the extent of what are asserted to be the “manifestly obvious” historical facts about National Socialist Germany. Clearly the prosecutors had presumed that Dr. Töben would defend himself, and that his amateur legal resources would be insufficient against the might and expertise of the combined British and German governments.

British Crown prosecutors, acting on behalf of their German counterparts, appealed to London’s High Court in an effort to reinstate the warrant and resume the extradition process – but on 19th November this appeal was dramatically abandoned with an executive order made for his immediate release in a comprehensive victory for Dr. Töben’s extradition experts.

Having begun the day in a Wandsworth prison cell, Dr. Töben spent the evening at a champagne reception in St. James’s as a guest of Michèle, Lady Renouf, who had coordinated his defence campaign and recruited the specialist legal team of Kevin Lowry-Mullins of Dass Solicitors and barrister Ben Watson of 3 Raymond Buildings.

Lady Renouf believes that with Dr. Töben now fully vindicated, the Germany’s oppressive laws are now in the dock. The court of international opinion now charges 21st century Germany with crimes against traditional European standards of justice and free scientific enquiry. These standards were inherited from Classical Greece, which valued the inseparable four virtues of wisdom (with scientific attitude), temperance, courage and justice.

Joining the German state in the dock is the U.K.’s Attorney General Baroness Scotland, who supervises the Crown Prosecution Service which unjustly imprisoned Dr. Töben for fifty days on a warrant which failed even to meet the minimum standards required to allow an extradition hearing to proceed.

Baroness Scotland herself (in an earlier role as Home Office Minister) was responsible for piloting the Extradition Act through the House of Lords. She specifically assured Parliament in 2003 that revisionist historians such as Dr. Töben would not be subject to extradition under European Arrest Warrants for publishing their views on the internet. Yet five years later she allowed her senior officials to proceed with exactly the type of extradition which she had promised Parliament could never take place. If she has any sense of personal honour or political responsibility, Baroness Scotland will submit her resignation forthwith.

Meanwhile Dr. Töben will proceed with his historical work, secure in the knowledge that despite the perfidy of British politicians, the London courts have rescued their country’s honour and preserved the proud heritage of Magna Carta.

Let this victory for traditional freedom lead to the rolling back of tyranny from those European countries which jail opinions and increasingly jail lawyers for defending them. Dr. Töben’s defeat of the seemingly invincible should lead to a renewed offensive against oppressive European laws, winning long overdue freedom for Ernst Zündel, Germar Rudolf, Sylvia Stolz, Gerd Honsik and Wolfgang Fröhlich – and the removal of legal threats to Vincent Reynouard, Jürgen Graf, Robert Faurisson and many fearless scientists and other scholars who insist there should be no exceptions to the normal revisionist method. They stand in defence of “debate and rational argument”, in defiance of the anti-educational edict of the Stockholm International Forum 2000, which attempts to prescribe “guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust”. These guidelines are about to be enshrined in the U.K.’s education policy, backed by a multimillion-pound propaganda industry promoting a one-sided approach to what should be a democratically debateable, multifaceted subject. The sudden halt to the extradition process against Dr. Töben has already prompted diverse commentators, including the Jewish Chronicle and Jerusalem Post, to call for revisionism to be combated in the classroom rather than the courtroom. Dr. Töben and his fellow scholars, freed from the Damoclean shadow of 21st century German “justice”, stand ready to take open debate of historical truth onto this new front.

Dr. Töben’s European spokesman Lady Renouf wishes to thank all those wellwishers who have helped to keep up Dr. Töben’s spirits during his incarceration and who indicated their willingness to contribute towards his £100,000 bail security, happily no longer required.

Further information can be obtained from Lady Renouf, Tel/Fax 0208 460 7453, email: ladymrenouf@tellingfilms.co.uk

Article found at davidduke.com

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