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Three-year jail term for Holocaust denier

Vienna: David Irving, the discredited historian and Nazi apologist, was on Monday night starting a three-year prison sentence in Vienna for denying the Holocaust and the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Irving, who appeared in court confidently on Monday morning carrying his book Hitler's War and a PG Wodehouse paperback, immediately vowed to appeal against the sentence. ``I'm very shocked,'' he said as he was led from Vienna's biggest courtroom back to the cells where he has been held for the past three months. ``Stay strong David, best of luck to you,'' an English supporter shouted after the sentence was read. Irving (67), had started the day affecting the image of an English gent arraigned before a foreign court. ``Frankly, questions about the Holocaust bore me,'' he said. He clutched a copy of Hitler's War - ``my flagship, 35 years of work'' - and from his blazer pocket he fetched the Wodehouse book Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets. Austria has Europe's toughest law criminalising denial of the Holocaust.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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