Elie
Wiesel stated under oath while giving
testimony in the trial of Eric Hunt in San
Francisco, California in July 2008 that the
number A7713 was tattooed on his left arm. (see
Where is the Tattoo? on this site)
Wiesel should have been asked to show his
tattoo to the court at that time, but he
wasn’t. This was a failure of the defense,
for sure. But obviously, at that time, Mr.
Hunt, the defendant, was not questioning
whether Elie Wiesel had been an inmate of
Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Since then, Mr. Hunt and others have
uncovered video photography of Wiesel’s
bare left arm from all angles, leaving no
reasonable doubt that no tattoo is there.
Backing up this conclusion is the fact that
Wiesel has also famously refused to ever
show his tattoo when requested to do so. For
those who will retaliate that Wiesel may
have had the tattoo removed, he said as late
as March 25, 2010 that he still had the
number A7713 on his arm. (see Where is the
Tattoo?)
From this, the average man on the street
would probably agree that Elie Wiesel has
committed perjury (a criminal offense) if he
does not indeed have the number tattooed on
his arm. The law, according to http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/p032.htm,
says:
When a person, having taken an oath before a
competent tribunal, officer, or person, in
any case in which a law of the U.S.
authorizes an oath to be administered, that
he will testify, declare, depose, or certify
truly, or that any written testimony,
declaration, deposition, or certificate by
him subscribed, is true, willfully and
contrary to such oath states or subscribes
any material matter which he does not
believe to be true; or in any declaration,
certificate, verification, or statement
under penalty of perjury, willfully
subscribes as true any material matter which
he does not believe to be true;
In order for a person to be found guilty of
perjury the government must prove: the
person testified under oath before [e.g.,
the grand jury]; at least one particular
statement was false; and the person knew at
the time the testimony was false.
However, in practice, the question of
materiality is crucial. Perjury is defined
at Criminal-law.freeadvice.com as:the
“willful and corrupt taking of a false
oath in regard to a material matter in a
judicial proceeding.” It is sometimes
called “lying under oath;” that is,
deliberately telling a lie in a courtroom
proceeding after having taken an oath to
tell the truth. It is important that the
false statement be material to the case at
hand—that it could affect the outcome of
the case. It is not considered perjury, for
example, to lie about your age, unless your
age is a key factor in proving the case.
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