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Last update - 20:51 28/04/2008
Alleged 'Heil Hitler' comment lands German lawyer in court
By DPA
Tags: Germany, Heil hitler 

A lawyer with previous convictions for neo-Nazi gestures went on trial Monday for allegedly welcoming Germany's leading Jewish television personality to an interview with the words "Heil Hitler."

Michel Friedman, 52, whose past posts include deputy chairman of Germany's national Jewish body, was hired by a magazine to interview
Horst Mahler, 72, who started out as a communist extremist in the 1970s as a founder of the Red Army Faction terrorist group.
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Vanity Fair's German edition contends that its publication of the interview in a 10-page spread revealed the absurdity of Holocaust denial. Friedman, who is also a lawyer, filed a police complaint against Mahler after their talk in an airport hotel room.

Mahler faced charges at a court in Erding, a Munich outer suburb, of sedition, using gestures of an anti-constitutional organization and criminal insult. Friedman was to appear as a witness and testify
how Mahler began the interview with the Nazi greeting.

During previous prosecutions, Mahler has been unrepentant about his praise of Nazi rule and use of the stiff-armed Heil Hitler salute. Nazi symbols are illegal in Germany. In 2006 he arrived at jail to serve a sentence and did the salute at the gate.

He has also been active in and worked as lawyer for the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). German authorities have confiscated
Mahler's passport to stop him attending Holocaust denial events
abroad.

Since 1945, the Nazis' murder of an estimated 6 million Jews has been exhaustively documented by prosecutors and historians using eyewitness testimony, archival records and recovery of human remains, but some admirers of Hitler claim the Holocaust never happened.

The crime of sedition in Germany expressly includes Holocaust denial because of the insult to Jews as an ethnic group.

Friedman, whose vice-presidency of the Central Council of Jews ended in 2003 amid evidence of cocaine use, is well-known in Germany as a straight-talking television host whose parents were saved from the Auschwitz death camp by German businessman Oskar Schindler.

Some critics called Friedman's participation in the interview wrong, saying Mahler should have been denied any media platform.

Although Mahler, who ended his last jail term last August, has already been sentenced to another six months for his next Heil Hitler salute, he has not served that sentence yet because an appeal is pending.

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      1.   Entrapment 16:13  |  Rowan 28/04/08
      2.   Michel Friedman apologized for abusing drugs 16:53  |  Andreas 28/04/08
      3.   Freedom? 17:16  |  America 28/04/08
      4.   Rowan 17:22  |  The Real Nigel 28/04/08
      5.   Alleged Heil Hitler Comment 19:01  |  JordanisPalestine 28/04/08
      6.   Mahler Still Smoking The Evil 1000 Yr. Reich`s Pipe Dream 19:14  |  Lavi 28/04/08
      7.   Rowan... 20:07  |  Jon 28/04/08
      8.   Jon #7 21:29  |  Warren J. 28/04/08
      9.   #5 22:00  |  Alex 28/04/08
      10.   2 words 22:17  |  Shana 28/04/08
      11.   #8 Warren J.; You must be totally insulated from 22:36  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 28/04/08
      12.   Friedman..."you invite them" so smile.!! 23:13  |  Stephen. 28/04/08
      13.   # 11 Max 23:35  |  Axel 28/04/08
      14.   Rowan 23:37  |  sweis Melbourne 28/04/08
      15.   reply to no.3, "America" 00:21  |  Sam 29/04/08
      16.   No courage? 00:41  |  Frank 29/04/08
      17.   No courage? 00:42  |  Frank 29/04/08
      18.   Real German and his Fuhrer - they lost to Jews ... 01:22  |  17 29/04/08
      19.   Rowan and Andreas poo-pooh Nazism 01:34  |  Reid 29/04/08
      20.   Occupied Germany, 1945 - 2015 ? 03:42  |  michael mazur 29/04/08
      21.   a stupid law 04:07  |  samos 29/04/08
      22.   mazur 04:49  |  sweis Melbourne 29/04/08
      23.   American 04:52  |  sweis Melbourne 29/04/08
      24.   Double Standart about FREEDOM of Speech 12:40  |  Haroun al Rashid 29/04/08
      25.   #11 Max. Neither the Balfour declaration etc. etc. etc. 19:54  |  Rozz 29/04/08
      26.   #24 Haroun al Rashid 20:22  |  Rozz 29/04/08
      27.   but what ever happened to freedom of speech? 21:00  |  hollingsworth 29/04/08
      28.   Horst Mahler puts his money where his mouth is 21:02  |  hollingsworth 29/04/08
      29.   Very strange decision! 21:34  |  Fritz T. 29/04/08
      30.   "the laws of the 1933-45 period are only in suspension" 21:48  |  Fritz T. 29/04/08
      31.   Some people see Elvis 02:38  |  ghostoflutherblisset 30/04/08
      32.   Free speech isn`t one that embraces lies. 15:56  |  petra 21/05/08
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