A German court has fined British SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson €12,000 (around $18,000) after he was found guilty of denying the Holocaust.
Richard Williamson received a letter from the court in the
Bavarian city of Regensburg informing him that he was being fined for
incitement over his claim on Swedish television that fewer than 300,000
Jews died in Nazi death camps, The Guardian reports.
Williamson has said through his lawyer that he was assured his
offending remarks would not be broadcast in Germany but only in Sweden,
where there is no law against Holocaust denial, a claim denied by the
Swedish television producers.
Williamson’s German lawyer, Matthias Lossmann, said his client had
been told to pay €100 ($150) a day for 120 days, and he was likely to appeal.
If he does, there will be a proper trial in Regensburg, which
Williamson will not be forced to attend.
Lossmann told Germany’s Focus magazine that the fine - imposed under
an “order of punishment”, a German legal tool that involves no trial
but, if accepted by the defendant, is equivalent to a conviction - was
too harsh and that the sentencing authorities had been influenced by
the publicity surrounding the case.
SOURCE
German court fines British bishop for Holocaust claims (Guardian)