Pedro
Varela
Spanish bookseller
While attending
university, V. earned praise as an outstanding student of history, completing a five-year course with high marks and in half the usual time. Also at the
university, he endured physical attacks from leftists. For a time he headed the
"Spanish Circle of Friends of Europe" (CEDADE), a group noted for its frank sympathy for Germany's Third Reich and its National Socialist
ideology. In March 1991 V. spoke (in German) at the "Leuchter Kongress" in
Munich, an open-air revisionist meeting organized by Ernst Zündel.
In 1992 he was arrested in Austria on a charge of
"reactivating" National Socialism because, during an earlier visit to the
country, he had delivered a speech in which he praised Hitler. After being held nearly three months in
prison, he was finally brought to trial in mid-December 1992 before a court in Steyr
that, amazingly, acquitted him.
V.'s case began on December 12, 1996, when police raided
V.'s "Libreria Europa" bookstore in central Barcelona. The police seized some 20,000
books, along with numerous periodicals, posters, and audio and video
cassettes. V. was later arrested at his family home.
Spain's 1995
"anti-genocide" and "anti-discrimination" law (Penal Code Section 607.2)
made it a crime to express "ideas or doctrines that promote the crime
of genocide, or exalt its author," or to "deny, trivialize, or
justify" genocidal actions. It goes on to make it a crime to "attempt to rehabilitate or establish a regime or institution that aids practices that generate the crime of
genocide."
The case took nearly two years to come to trial in part because many of the seized books were in English, German and French, and the prosecution insisted on painstakingly translating many of them into Spanish to determine precisely what portions of which books violated the
law. During the
trial, which took place in Barcelona criminal court on October 16 and 17, 1998, the public prosecutor cited 30 books sold in
V.'s bookstore that praise Third Reich Germany and approve its policies, or which present revisionist arguments on the Holocaust
issue. Joining with the prosecution in the case was the Jewish community organization of Barcelona
(ATID) and a group called "SOS Racism."
Varela's attorneys called on the tribunal to acquit the
defendant, and to declare that the law under which he had been charged is
unconstitutional. V. explained, he has "the moral duty to tell the
truth," just as a physician has the duty to heal. "As a historian, I must keep researching the
past, and when doubt is not permitted, it arises inevitably." He also
declared: "In my opinion it is necessary to review history because it is an open issue and everything is subject to revision ... Every historian must be skeptical of everything and must also review what has been said thus far. Revisionists question the scope and degree of the alleged persecutions of National Socialist
Germany". On November 16, 1998, the court declared V. guilty of inciting racial hatred and of denying or justifying
genocide, and sentenced him to five years imprisonment and a fine of 720,000 pesetas
(about $5,000). The 20,000 books seized by the police were ordered to be burned, even though the court found that only 30
titles, out of some 200 altogether, violated the law.
On December 10, 1998, V.'s attorneys appealed the court's sentence and
verdict. He was free pending the ruling of the appeals court. On January 16, 1999, in front of the Europa book store on Barcelona's Séneca street political terrorists broke
windows, tore down book shelves, and destroyed office furniture and
equipment. They gathered up several hundred books, as well some video
cassettes, which they heaped into a large pile and set on fire. Although the police were promptly and repeatedly
called, they gave no help against the violent attack. Instead, they stood by
passively.
On April 30, 1999,
the provincial court of Catalonia had voted to suspend V.'s conviction. The three judges of the Audencia court in Barcelona unanimously declared that the law under which he had been convicted may violate Article 20 of the Spanish
Constitution, which guarantees the rights of free speech and free expression of
opinion. Public skepticism about Holocaust claims, the three judges agreed, is constitutionally protected expressions of free
speech. The case went to the Constitutional Tribunal in Madrid. In the
meantime, V.'s conviction was suspended, and he remained relatively free.
His passport was, however, confiscated and during a period of ten years he was subjected to
other repressive measures. He not only had to endure repeated raids but also put up with large financial losses resulting from the renewed seizure of thousands of
books.
On the 8th November, 2007, eleven years after the start of the prosecution of
V., the 12 highest judges of Spain's Constitutional Court in Madrid (El tribunal Constitucional) decided not only regarding the Holocaust denial law but also on the fate of
V. The judges did not accept as valid the argument that denying the 'Holocaust' would violate the human dignity of Jews and threaten their existence. The judges argued that the free expression of opinion could possibly offend some individual or group of
individuals - indeed this is the distinguishing characteristic of freedom of expression of opinion. According to the judges one can not make the basic human right of freedom of expression of opinion dependent on the sensitivities of an individual or of certain groups.
In Spain from now on 'Holocaust' research may no longer be prosecuted as a criminal offence.
Letzte Änderung / Last update: 07.06.2011
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