D. Irving acknowledges he was wrong, but to no avail

February 20 an Austrian court sentenced British self-taught historian David Irving to three years in jail for denying the Holocaust. The 67-year-old Briton pleaded guilty. According to Austrian law, all statements denying Nazi crimes during the Second World War are punishable by imprisonment of up to 10 years.

The British historian had been kept in custody since November of 2005 when he was arrested in Austria during a customary inspection of his driving documents. A Vienna court had issued a warrant for his arrest as far back as 1989, after he had denied during one of his public speeches that the Nazi regime had used gas chambers.

At that time the historian had also claimed that the so-called "Crystal Night" of November 9, 1938, that initiated the extermination of Jews in Germany, had not been started by the Nazis, and that Hitler had actually been defending Jews.

Later D. Irving, after having carried out additional research, had admitted he was wrong and criticized himself for his pronouncements. After the verdict had been announced, the Austrian prosecutor said he was shocked by the severity of the sentence, while D. Irving's lawyer said he was filing an appeal against the court's decision. The lawyer said he was certain his client would not stay in jail for more than two years.