The European Union's top Justice official appealed to EU nations Friday, on the eve of international commemorations to mark the Holocaust, to adopt strict new rules to criminalize denial of the World War II genocide.

EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the 27-nation bloc must finally adopt tough, new EU-wide rules to criminalize the incitement of hatred and acts of racist violence - proposals that have been blocked since 2004.

In our democratic societies, it is possible to fight racist speech through penal law in full respect of the European Convention of Human Rights, Frattini said in a statement.

	Advertisement

Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said it would try to secure agreement on the plan during its six-month tenure as EU chair.

The EU plans include the introduction of minimum EU-wide prison terms -
between one and three years - for those convicted of purposely inciting racist violence or hatred, or those who deny the Holocaust.

Efforts two years ago to set minimum prison terms ended in failure, however, after ministers were unable to agree. Several countries, notably Britain, Italy and Denmark, see such tough measures as overstepping the rights of expression under their national laws.

Frattini said Saturday's commemorations to mark the day in 1945 when the
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp - where more than 1.5 million people perished, most of them Jewish - was liberated by Soviet troops should not be forgotten.

We must remind ourselves of how it all became possible, Frattini said. We must remember how entrenched hatred and prejudice was spread through speech and how it became official state policy, law and practice.

He added that those who purposely deny or minimize the Holocaust constitute an unacceptable affront not only to the victims of that tragedy and their descendants but also to the whole democratic world.

German Prosecutors seek 5-year prison term for Holocaust denier
Prosecutors asked a court Friday to sentence Ernst Zundel to five years in prison for his persistent denial of the Holocaust through a dozen writings and a high-profile Web site.

In his closing arguments, prosecutor Andreas Grossmann called Zundel a political con-man from whom the German people must be protected, widely quoting from his writings, which argue that millions of Jews did not die at the hands of the Nazis.

You might as well argue that the sun does not rise in the west, said Grossmann, asking that Zundel be given the maximum sentence. But you cannot change that the Holocaust has been proven.

Zundel, 66, is charged with 14 counts of incitement for a series of pamphlets and for disseminating far-right and anti-Semitic propaganda through his Web site, which is hosted in Canada, according to the indictment.

Zundel, who was deported from Canada in 2005 and has also lived in the U.S. state of Tennessee, has been standing trial since November of last year. Since his deportation, he and his supporters have argued that Zundel is a peaceful campaigner denied his right to free speech.

A previous incitement trial involving Zundel collapsed last year over a
dispute with his attorney. At one stage she had to be carried from the
courtroom, screaming, after defying an order banning her from the trial on grounds she tried to sabotage the proceedings by denouncing the court as a tool of foreign domination.

It was not immediately clear when the defense would make its closing
arguments.

Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany and is punishable by three months to five years in prison.