Holocaust questioner Toben arrested at Heathrow

Frederick Toben, who is wanted in Germany on Holocaust denial charges, is being held in a prison in London until a bail hearing is set.

On 1 October, Toben was arrested at Heathrow Airport during a stopover on his flight from the US to Dubai. His bail hearing has been scheduled for 10 October.

One week after the bail hearing, another hearing will be held to determine whether Toben should be extradited to Germany. The date for the extradition hearing is 17 October, according to media reports. The City of Westminster magistrates’ court announced the dates last Friday. Toben and a number of his supporters, including David Irving, were reported to have attended the court announcement.

Irving lost a lawsuit he filed against US historian Deborah Lipstadt, who had described him as a Holocaust denier. In speaking with reporters, he said that while he might be in disagreement with some of the views Toben holds, he insisted that Toben has every right to express his opinions. He added that the focus of the case is that right.

Toben, who is 64 years old, is German by birth, but lives in Australia. He founded the Adelaide Institute there, which is a radical anti-Jewish organization. In 1999 he spent nine months in Mannheim Prison, after he had been convicted of ‘defaming the dead,’ by his denial of the existence of the Holocaust.

In 2002, an Australian federal court ordered him to remove anti-Jewish content from his website.

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