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The woman, identified as Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzela a former chairwoman of the outlawed far-right group Collegium Humanum

Munich - An 81-year-old German woman is to serve a six-month suspended sentence after being convicted of denying the Holocaust, a district court in Munich said Wednesday.

The woman, identified as Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzela a former chairwoman of the outlawed far-right group Collegium Humanum, admitted to distributing pamphlets containing Holocaust-denying material in schools.

A 91-year-old man was also convicted by the court of aiding and abetting Holocaust denial, as he had allowed the material to be distributed with his name as the publisher.

Holocaust denial, or the calling into question the historical event of the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler, is a crime in Germany punished under laws governing incitement.

The woman was fined 1,000 euros (1,390 dollars), her accomplice 600.

The prosecution had demanded a nine-month prison sentence for the woman. However judge Norbert Riedmann said he had ‘severe doubts that the accused would change her views.’

‘She is too deeply rooted for that,’ Riedmann said. The judge added that the woman was entitled to her views, but would be punished for publishing them.

Collegium Humanum was banned in 2008, on the grounds that it attracted anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi supporters that deny the Holocaust.

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