ht lay jurors and three judges in a case based on remarks he made in a 1989 interview and in speeches when he visited Austria, where denying the Nazi genocide on Jews is a crime.

Irving, who had argued in court that he had denied the Holocaust at the time but had since changed his views, said he would appeal the ruling.

"I'm very shocked," Irving said when he was leaving the court room. His lawyer said that he had already lodged an appeal. The prosecutor declined to comment before he had read the full verdict.

A sentence of three years cannot be suspended on parole in Austria, meaning Irving, who was arrested in Austria in November, would have to stay in prison if the ruling was confirmed by a higher court.

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David Irving Jailed For Holocaust Denial

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329416704-103478,00.html

Staff and agencies

Monday February 20, 2006

Guardian Unlimited

The British revisionist historian and Nazi apologist David Irving was today sentenced to three years in prison after he admitted denying the Holocaust.

An eight-member jury at a court in Vienna convicted Irving, 68, a few hours after it began its deliberations on the first day of his trial.

Irving had pleaded guilty to denying the Holocaust in two speeches on a visit to Austria in 1989, but said at the trial that he had later changed his views.

The speeches included a call for an end to the "gas chambers fairy tale", and claims that Adolf Hitler had helped Europe's Jews and that the Holocaust was a myth.

Irving told the court today he had revised his opinion after seeing the personal files of Adolf Eichmann. Speaking in German, he told the court he now accepted that the Nazis had killed millions of Jews.

At one stage, while giving evidence, he expressed sorrow for "all the innocent people" who died during the war. "I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," he said.

Austria has the world's stiffest laws against denying the Holocaust and Irving could have faced a maximum of 10 years in prison.

The defence had called for leniency, citing his admission and his claims that he had changed his viewpoint.

The prosecution, however, had accused Irving of changing his position as a "tactic" to escape a harsh sentence, and said the historian was an icon for neo-Nazis and revisionists around the world.

Irving appeared shocked as the sentence was read out. Moments later, an elderly man who identified himself only as a family friend called out: "Stay strong, David - stay strong," before he was escorted from the courtroom.

Irving's lawyer Elmar Kresbach immediately announced he would appeal the sentence. "I consider the verdict a little too stringent. I would say it's a bit of a message trial".

This morning, when he arrived at court, Irving told reporters: "History is a constantly growing tree - the more you know, the more documents become available, the more you learn. And I have learned a lot since 1989.

"Yes, there were gas chambers. Millions of Jews died. There is no question. I don't know the figures. I'm not an expert on the Holocaust."

Irving, who has written around 30 books, said he considered it "ridiculous" that he was standing trial for remarks made 17 years ago.

Handcuffed and wearing a navy blue suit, he arrived at the court carrying a copy of one of his most controversial books, Hitler's War, which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.

Later in court he said he had never written a book about the Holocaust, which he called "just a fragment of my area of interest".

The controversial historian has been in custody since he was arrested in November while driving in southern Austria, despite being barred from the country. He had been on his way to address an extreme-right student fraternity in Vienna.

In 2000, Irving sued the US Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt for libel at the British high court and lost. The presiding judge in that case, Charles Gray, wrote that Irving was "an active Holocaust denier ... anti-Semitic and racist".

He was fined several thousand pounds in 1992 in Germany for saying the Auschwitz gas chambers were a hoax.

He is said to have spent recent months in prison awaiting trial after he was denied bail writing his memoirs, under the working title Irving's War. His lawyer said last month Irving was getting up to 300 fan letters a week from supporters around the world.

Irving has contended in the past that most of the people who died at concentration camps such as Auschwitz were not murdered but rather succumbed to typhus and other diseases.

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