The appeal of the renegade Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson against his conviction by a German court in Regensburg for Holocaust denial will be held at the end of November, his lawyer has said. Williamson is set to appear in person at his trial in Regensburg in November, where he wants the fine imposed by a lower court in April of € 10,000 for public incitement to hatred overturned. Williamson, 70, appeared on Swedish television in 2008, saying that there had been no gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps and that not more than 300,000 Jews had died there. The bishop, a member of the breakaway ultra-conservative Catholic St. Pius X Society (SSPX), was fined for his Holocaust denial because the interview was recorded on German soil.
At the previous trial, his fraternity banned him from attending in person, but his attorney said he would probably appear in court in November. Pope Benedict XVI unleashed a deluge of criticism last year when he reversed the excommunication of Williamson and three other SSPX bishops in a bid to heal the rift with the fraternity.
