06 April, 2006
A defense lawyer for a far-right activist Ernst Zündel, currently on trial in Germany for denying the Holocaust, has been physically carried out of the courtroom after defying a ruling banning her from the trial on grounds that she tried to sabotage the proceedings. Two female police officers had to carry Sylvia Stolz from the Mannheim courtroom after she refused to leave upon the judge's order. "Resistance! The German people are rising up," Stolz shouted as she was taken from the room. Some of the scores of supporters of Ernst Zündel, a 66-year-old German deported from Canada last year, also left the courtroom. Presiding judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen halted the trial on 9 March to ask for Stolz's removal after she denounced the court as a "tool of foreign domination" and described the Jews as an "enemy people" in earlier sessions. A higher court last week granted his request, though Stolz, one of six defense lawyers, can still appeal. The judge said that the court intended to invite Zündel's American wife, Ingrid Rimland, as a witness. He said German authorities would guarantee not to arrest Rimland, who is also under investigation for alleged incitement, if she agrees to testify.