Vienna – An Austrian court official says a far-right author who has questioned the Holocaust has been paroled after serving three years in prison for glorifying Nazi ideology and backing Nazi-era beliefs.
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Gerd Honsik was serving concurrent four-year and two-year terms for writing books and in right wing publications that praised the Hitler era and contained anti-Jewish sentiments. He still had over a year left to serve.
Court official Gerhard Hinger said Thursday the decision to release the 68-year-old Honsik was reached Monday. He says he does not know when Honsik actually left prison or where he is now.
Officials said the parole decision was based on age and the fact that he is well-integrated in Spain, where he lives with his family.
Once you start along this road of criminalizing opinion you have effectively burned the whole idea of Freedom of Speech. Because if one side can do it, then eventually the other side can win and take revenge by doing it back. It sounds like the Inquisition or the Gulag Archipelago. This has to stop. At least in the US we still have the First Amendement to protect us from the power of the Thought Police and the State in the court of law.