영국작가 데이비드 어빙은 나치 독일의 유태인 강제수용소 아우슈비츠에서 죽은 사람들의 다수는 처형된 것이 아니라 티푸스 같은 전염병으로 죽었다는 발표를 오스트리아에서 했다가 이 나라 정부에 의해 구속기소되어 징역3년형을 선고받았다. 오늘 그는 刑期의 3분의 2에 대해서 보석결정을 받고 풀려났다. 독일과 오스트리아를 비롯한 유럽의 몇 나라에선 유태인 대학살을 부인하는 사람을 형사처벌하는 법이 있다. 1992년에 오스트리아에서 성립된 법은 유태인 학살을 축소한다든지 나치의 학살에 대해서 변호를 하는 것도 처벌할 수 있도록 했다.

이런 법의 정신을 살려 우리나라에서 유사법을 만든다면 6.25 남침을 부인하는 자, 김정일에 의한 飢餓학살, 아웅산 테러, 대한항공기 폭파, 육영수 암살 사건 등을 부인하는 자는 감옥에 보낼 수 있다. 대한민국의 건국을 분열정권 수립이라고 악담하는 노무현 같은 공무원들도 형사처벌할 수 있다. 김정일을 主敵으로 보지 않으려는 공무원도 형사처벌할 수 있어야 한다. 이런 법은 양심의 자유를 억압하는 것이 아니다. 자유를 파괴하는 자유를 제한하는 법이다. 노무현은 국군통수권자인데 이 자는 어제 발광하듯이 말하기를 국군은 젊은 사람들을 몇년간 썩히는 곳이라고 했다. 그렇다면 군대가 감옥이란 말인가? 군대가 정신병동이란 말인가? 이런 망언도 처벌할 수 있는 나라여야 자유를 빼앗기지 않는다. 자유라는 나무는 애국자와 독재자와 선동가의 피를 마시면서 커온 것이다.










Holocaust denier: 'No need to show remorse'
POSTED: 0153 GMT (0953 HKT), December 21, 2006
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LONDON, England (AP) -- British writer David Irving returned to England the day after he was released early from an Austrian prison -- vowing to repeat views denying the Holocaust that led to his conviction.

Irving said Thursday he felt 'no need any longer to show remorse' for his views on the Holocaust, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison. Vienna's highest court granted Irving's appeal and converted two-thirds of his sentence into probation on Wednesday.

Upon arriving at London's Heathrow airport, he also called for a boycott of all Austrian and German historians until laws which make Holocaust denial illegal in those countries are overturned.

Willfried Kovarnik, head of Vienna's immigration police, said Irving had been indefinitely banned from Austria and that he had spent Wednesday night in an Austrian detention center. Irving said he intended to appeal that decision.

In February, Irving was convicted under a 1992 law that applies to anyone in Austria who denies, plays down, approves or tries to excuse the Nazi genocide or other Nazi crimes against humanity. The law calls for a prison term of up to 10 years.

During his one-day trial earlier this year, Irving pleaded guilty to the charge of denying the Holocaust.

Both the defense and the prosecution appealed the sentence. In September, Austria's Supreme Court upheld Irving's conviction.

He said he spent his time in prison writing his memoirs.

During his imprisonment, he said that he and his seriously ill wife, Bente Hogh, lost their Central London home. He said he would return to temporary accommodation in Central London and begin to rebuild his life.

He said he had been targeted by a 'secret society of judges' in Britain.

'They haven't succeeded,' he said. 'My enemies are deeply shocked that I'm out. They thought I would die in prison.'

Irving had been in custody since his November 2005 arrest on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 for which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews.

He has contended that most of those who died at concentration camps like Auschwitz succumbed to diseases such as typhus rather than execution.

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