Austrian court cuts Holocaust denier´s jail term

The Vienna court said in its judgment of Honsik´s appeal that the first sentence had been ˝too much˝.

VIENNA, March 1, 2010 (AFP) - An Austrian appeals court on Monday cut the the jail sentence of Holocaust denier Gerd Honsik to four years from an initial five.

The Vienna court said in its judgment of Honsik's appeal that the first sentence had been "too much".

Honsik was found guilty last April of denying the Holocaust and the existence of gas chambers in a number of publications between 1987 and 2003.

He served four years in prison in the 1960s on the same charge and was sentenced again to one and a half years in 1992 following the publication of his book "Freispruch fuer Hitler?" (Acquittal for Hitler?).

But he fled to Spain, where he stayed for 15 years -- and continued to publish -- before he was extradited back to Austria in 2007.

The most recent charges against him related to his magazine "Halt" (Stop) and two books "Schelm und Scheusal" (Rogue and Monster) and "Der Juden Drittes Reich" (The Jews' Third Reich) published between 1987 and 2003.