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EU
aims to Criminalize Questioning Jewish Version of WWII
Laws that make denying or
trivializing the Holocaust a criminal offence punishable by jail
sentences will be introduced across the European Union, according to a
proposal expecting to win backing from ministers
Thursday.
Offenders will face up to three years in
jail under the proposed legislation, which will also apply to
inciting violence against ethnic, religious or national groups.
Diplomats in
However, the Baltic
countries and
The latest draft will make
it mandatory for all Union member states to punish public incitement
“to violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member
of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent
or national or ethnic origin”.
They will also have to
criminalize “publicly condoning, denying or grossly trivialising crimes
of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes” when such
statements incite hatred or violence against minorities.
Diplomats stressed the
provision had been carefully worded to include only denial of the
alleged Jewish Holocaust and the genocide in
Holocaust denial is already
a criminal offence in several European countries, including
In an attempt to assuage
Turkish fears, several EU diplomats said the provisions would not
penalise the denial of mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman troops in
the aftermath of the 1915 collapse of the Ottoman empire.
The proposal draws what is
likely to be a controversial distinction between inciting violence
against racial or ethnic groups and against religious groups. Attacks
against Muslims, Jews or other faiths will only be penalized if they go
on to incite violence against ethnic or racial groups, the draft text
states.
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