EIT: Ihmisoikeussopimus ei turvaa oikeutta kiistää holokausti

Chamber judgment in the case of Pastörs v. Germany (application no. 55225/14)

The European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that

• the applicant’s complaint under Article 10 (freedom of expression) was manifestly ill-founded and had to be rejected, and,
• by four votes to three that there had been no violation of Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case concerned the conviction of a Land deputy for denying the Holocaust during a speech in the regional Parliament.
The Court found in particular that the applicant had intentionally stated untruths to defame Jews. Such statements could not attract the protection for freedom of speech offered by the Convention as they ran counter to the values of the Convention itself. There was thus no appearance of a violation of the applicant’s rights and the complaint was inadmissible. The Court also examined a complaint by the applicant of judicial bias as one of the Court of Appeal judges who had dealt with his case was the husband of the first-instance judge. It found no violation of his right to a fair trial because an independent Court of Appeal panel with no links to either judge had ultimately decided on the bias claim and had rejected it.

http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press?i=003-6523883-8616003