A court in Vienna has sentenced Gottfried Küssel, 54, a leading neo-Nazi figure in Austria, to nine years in prison for his role in launching an extreme-right website that glorified Nazism. Küssel had denied any wrongdoing and told the court he had turned over a new leaf since serving a previous jail term for neo-Nazi activity, which is banned in Austria. But heeding prosecutors' description of Küssel as a prime leader of the extreme right, the jury voted 5-3 late to convict him. Two other defendants were handed jail sentences of seven and four-and-a-half years.
The Presiding Judge Martina Krainz said the internet was enormously important for spreading neo-Nazi ideology and the court had therefore imposed a severe punishment for the three men. Küssel was “a leading figure in the extreme-right scene” and had previously been convicted on similar counts, including an 11-year conviction in 1994, she pointed out.
Küssel's attorney, Michael Dohr, said he would appeal against the conviction. "I had expected an acquittal because of the very thin evidence. There was only circumstantial evidence, not more," he said in remarks broadcast by Austrian public radio ORF.
Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and a debate still smolders on whether Austrians were Hitler's first victims or willing accomplices. Austria's Jewish population was nearly wiped out in the ensuing Holocaust. Jewish leaders have warned of late against what they called creeping tolerance of anti-Semitism in Austria. A rabbi said in September that soccer fans had verbally abused him while police looked on, and a far-right politician drew criticism from the country's president for posting a cartoon on his website that was widely seen as anti-Semitic.
The 1947 Verbotsgesetz ('Prohibition Act') aims to suppress any potential revival of Nazism. It expressly bans Holocaust denial as well as the deliberate belittlement of Nazi atrocities.
