Balder Blog

Update October 23 and 31: Court ruled for extradition to proceed - Victims appealed [bottom]

Politiken: 'The small court room in the city of Elsinore, was packed so tightly, that Judge Ida-Louise Apostoli had to ask the latest arrivals to stay outside.'

Elsinore, a small city north of Denmark's capital Copenhagen, was the residence of William Shakespeare's main character in his famous play 'Hamlet'. From the same play, the phrase 'There's something rotten in the state of Denmark' gained notoriety.

And indeed, there certainly is something rotten in the State of Denmark these days. We are talking about a country which supposedly played a key role in sparking a worldwide debate about the ever increasing attempts from Muslim circles to impose restrictions on free speech.

Denmark gained some well deserved fame as the heroic country which stood up against threats of terrorism and murder directed towards specific people, such as Mohammed cartoon artist Kurt Westergaard and the editors and staff of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In contrast to other countries, which were all too willing to bow for Islamic threats and violence, Denmark did not budge even when the small (five million people) country's commercial interests were threatened by boycotts and sabotage.

These days this country has shown a much less heroic approach in the defense of its own traditional moral and judicial values.

Two men, a Danish and a German citizen have been arrested at the request of the German judicial system, under the infamous 'European Arrest Warrant', for allegedly having distributed 'Nazi-music' to the German market.

In Germany there is a ban on almost anything relating to the National Socialist era; symbols, books, texts, gestures, even acronyms for certain expressions, such as HH (Heil Hitler), '88' referring to the same letters of the alphabet; '18' (for AH = Adolf Hitler) etc.

The slightest expressions of 'historical revisionism' brings about relentless persecution and serious punishment. This does not only apply to genuine revisionists, violent skinheads or the proverbial 'Neo-Nazis', as the Christian priest and anti-abortionist Johannes Lerle found out when he was sentenced to two years in jail for having compared abortion to 'the holocaust'.

Denmark did very well with regular justice

In Denmark, so far we did very well without any such 'thought crime laws', and stuck to general laws punishing incitement to racial hatred or discrimination on the basis of race etc..

There is a small and stable official National Socialist Party; DNSB, which has occasionally taken part in local elections, and received something like 50 votes.

There is almost no racial violence from the activist right - which has more than enough trouble defending itself from violence from red-fascist Antifa activists - to even begin thinking about harassing strangers. Even the latest annual report from the secret police (PET) stated that political violence in Denmark mainly originates from the extreme left, and is directed at almost any group which is perceived as 'right wing', or, as leftwing extremists more often label almost anybody, 'Nazis'.

To wrap up this short repetition and introduction; the 'crimes' of which the two alleged Neo-Nazis are being accused by the German judiciary, are most likely completely legal in Denmark, and could, in a worst case scenario, probably only be punished by a warning, a fine or a very short suspended jail sentence.

Yesterday, October 21, 2008, there was a session of the court concerning the objections of the two 'hostages' (who have not been charged with anything in Denmark!). Here follows a translation of my Danish article on the subject, including information and reports from two Danish newspapers. For further background information as to what preceded the present court session, see the links to previous articles about the subject at the bottom of this page.

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The News part:

Alleged Nazi-music distributors extradition case in court in Elsinore

Politiken: 'The small court room in the city of Elsinore was packed to such a degree that judge Ida-Louise Apostoli had to ask the latest arrivals to stay outside.'

New details: Hostages deny being guilty of the German charges

During yesterday's court session, during which the court was to consider whether to comply with the German extradition demand under the European Arrest Warrant or to consider the objections of the accused, some interesting new details surfaced.

One of the accused - the 32 year old family father Flemming C. - completely denied having been involved in the distribution of the music CD's which were found by the police in his apartment.

Flemming C.said that he had only stored the boxes containing the CDs for an acquaintance from the record company 'North Wind records', and that he himself never listened to the music. He also said that he left the extreme-right subculture more than five years ago, after the birth of his daughter in 2002.

Police State methods against alleged thought criminals

The Dane also described how a SWAT team made up of about 10-12 police officers with dogs barged into his apartment at 7 o'clock in the morning, when he and his young daughter were sleeping. He was shaken by the inappropriately heavy-handed methods used by the police, and said it had been a traumatizing experience.

Which reminds me of the way another dissident, the Dutch cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot was brutally arrested by an armed SWAT team, accused of having made some drawings which allegedly could be seen as offensive to muslims..

The German citizen Stephan G. (living permanently in Denmark) bravely stood up for his convictions, and described himself as 'a very political person'. He also did not deny his connections with the neo-Nazi group 'Blood and Honour'.

On the other hand, he denied completely having anything at all to do with the CDs or having been involved in the distribution of the material.

Both the hostages described their ties with the political right in Denmark as 'rather loose'.

According to the the newspaper Politiken they said:

We took part in some drinking and fun. We called ourselves anti-communists, and teased 'anti-racist' activists.

The German indictment:

Germany, differs from most other countries in the world by claiming judicial powers over people residing in other countries, regards the entire Internet as its jurisdiction, and persecutes people all over the world for statements they have made outside the territory of the provisional Federal Republic of Germany.

Under these Hitlerian [?] judicial claims of judicial power outside Germany's own territory, the two alleged music distributors are accused of having committed offenses against 'hate speech' legislation and for 'disseminating propaganda for unconstitutional organizations'.

Solicitor Michael Schiodt (Schiødt), one of the defendants' lawyers, stated that it was highly improbable that the accused had broken existing Danish 'hate speech laws':

The extreme right and left have been subject to very close monitoring by the police for years, so in case they had done something illegal, they would have been charged. But this has not been the case.

The state prosecutor said said he did not think that the Danish Justice Department needed to concern it self with matters such as establishing guilt or judging evidence, but that the justice department only had to decide if the formal requirements of the extradition request had been met.

(So far I think the prosecutor is correct, which is a consequence of the rather absurd piece of legislation contained in the European Arrest Warrant. This legislation was specifically put in place with the intent to circumvent any problems which might prevent of a quick extradition to other EU member states. In reality this amounts to a most diabolic suspension of regular civil rights and putting a country's own citizens completely at the mercy of any extradition requesting country.
Under Danish law it would not even have been possible to keep the accused locked up for such a long time for the alleged crime pending trial.)

All the same the prosecutor quoted selected passages of the lyrics contained in songs from the music CDs, which according to Politiken 'combined hope for the death of the Jews with cheerful tralalas.'

I can thus conclude that the prosecutor and the defense lawyer share a common confusion, since also the prosecutor is trying to imply that the lyrics would have been illegal under Denmark's hate speech laws contained in § 266B, in spite of previous statements proclaiming the irrelevance of such questions.

'There was a long exchange of arguments between the prosecutor and the defense lawyers, which had more to do with technicalities and procedures, than with evidence or concrete actions', the newspaper Politiken wrote.

Respect for Danish legal traditions - Take your pick

Finally the German citizen Stephan G. asked if he could read out a written statement; however he was denied that favor by justice Ida-Louise Apostoli, who commented that 'the Danish legal tradition relies on oral principles'. (A light Altzenheimer patient would stand not much of a chance in such a court!)

Quit amusing to hear the judge referring to 'Danish legal traditions' on one side, concerning a minor thing such as reading a statement, while the whole case makes a complete mockery of any kind of traditional justice, formally as well as perceived from a moral point of view.

A ruling is expected tomorrow October 23 at 13:00 hours local time.

If the ruling goes against the hostages, they are expected to appeal immediately.

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Epilogue

	Image deesillustration.com

Lack of public debate in Denmark about the EU attack on time tested and highly valued judicial traditions

What is the most frightening aspect of this case is that there has been no public discussion about the reasonableness of this use of the European Arrest Warrant, and this new law's legality under the Danish Constitution.

The consequences of this legislation are utterly incalculable, and leave a door wide open to abuse, arbitrariness, preferential treatment on the basis of political beliefs, and an enormous inequality before the law.

It clearly enables the possibility of politically motivated persecution of people with certain backgrounds, and discrimination of people on behalf of their political convictions. Or can anyone imagine one of the Baltic States requesting the extradition of a Danish or British citizen for denying Communist historical atrocities?

First and foremost, of course, there is the outrageous and absurd notion of extraditing and already thereby severely punishing your own citizens for something which is not an offense in their own country. It also gives a country the opportunity to punish its citizens or residents using the legislation of other countries.

First and foremost, of course, there is the outrageous and absurd notion of extraditing and already thereby severely punishing your own citizens for something which is not an offense in their own country. It also gives a country the opportunity to punish its citizens or residents using the legislation of other countries.

Such legislation can also be bent into whichever way a state may desire; resulting in a discriminatory form of justice, decided on by the whims of any local government. This is evident from certain cases in Belgium, in which the Belgian Justice Department decided not to extradite people to Poland for having broken abortion laws in that country.

France refuses to extradite real terrorist

In France president Nicholas Sarkozy has only just refused to extradite a convicted Italian member of the infamous and blood soaked Red Brigade; Marina Petrella to her home country, where she is wanted for terrorism and perhaps even for being accessory to murder. As it turns out, she lived happily for years in France, using her own name, in spite of being badly wanted by the Italian Justice department. The case has caused an outcry in Italy, where family members of people who were murdered by the Red Brigades are furious about the French decision. To make things worse, Sarkozy and his Italian photo model wife Carla Bruni have even visited the terrorist in a hospital, and promised her personally not to hand her over to the evil Italians (who by the way are known to have a penal system which is famous for its leniency)!

Carte Blanche for politically motivated persecution

	Dr. Gerald Fredrick Töben
	Stephan G.
	Stephan G. was one of the speakers at NSF's demonstration for Ernst Zundel and more freedom of speech July 7 2007 Watch interview in English with Stephan G. at the Danish page
	Lene Espersen ex Justice Minister, now Commerce, new Conservative Party Leader
	The Danish Opt-outs from EU legislation
	The New Improved Amnesty International

So this is the European Arrest Warrant, a carte blanche for governments of all kinds, put in place under the guise of the necessity being able to combat terrorism effectively and quickly. But when it comes to the point, the actual terrorists run free, and the law is applied only to 'perpetrators of thought crimes'.

The Danish press initially announced that the eventual serving of the extradition order would constitute a ‘the beginning of a whole new policy' and a definitive break away from decades of traditional Danish legal practice.

But since then there has been nothing but silence, except for a few short articles reporting the outcome of some hearings, with no comments or discussion of the principles and consequences. At the same time there had been a constant discussion for weeks on end about another EU law which turned out to have undermined Denmark’s immigration policy.

At least in Great Britain there seems more willingness to discuss the possible effects on English law, practices, freedom of speech and citizens rights in connection with the rather similar case of the Australian citizen Fredrick Töben, but absolutely nothing of that sort in Denmark. The Töben case has also not been mentioned in the Danish press as far as I am aware.

When we look beyond Europe a pattern seems to emerge

Also the German born revisionist Ernst Zündel was extradited from Canada, where he had lived most of his life, to Germany, under an 'anti-terror law' which had been put in place in a panic after the 9/11 terror attack.

Zündel (who had the FBI's word for not being of any danger to anybody) was the only person ever extradited under this law. Shortly after the Zündel case, the justice department tried to use it to deport some Canadian residents of Arab descent (probably just as innocent of terrorist activity as Zündel), but then the law was found unconstitutional and was abolished completely.

For almost two years the Canadians kept the peaceful pensioner and dissident intellectual Ernst Zündel (65) under tortuous conditions in a cell without table and chair, and with the light switched on day and night. Back in Germany Zündel is now serving the maximum punishment of five years, under the special conditions for 'thought crime criminals', meaning lots of restrictions, and no access to the usual parole half way through the sentence, as is customary for real criminals, murderers, rapists, thieves and the like!

Foreign national muslim terrorists escape extradition - Dane to be extradited for bad taste in music!

In Denmark we recently saw a case involving two Tunisian citizens, who were found to have conspired to murder the famous mohammed cartoon artist Kurt Westergaard. One of them could not even be expelled from Denmark, and was allowed to stay because he stated he risked torture in his home country Tunisia.

Whenever there is a case of a foreigner being expelled from this country, be it because of serious violent crime or simply because of having been rejected as an asylum seeker, there are week long campaigns by the media and all sorts of 'humanitarian organizations', priests, politicians and other do gooders, putting pressure on the government and its institutions to reverse the deportation decision.

But in this case the press didn't show the least bit of interest about what was going on. Most of the court proceedings took place with 'closed doors', without access for the public or the press. It was hard to find out where the hostages were, and what was going to happen. They could have been shipped off without anybody knowing about it. No questions asked. All of that for a 'crime' which allegedly happened five years ago and is no crime in Denmark.

Say hello to the Brave New Rotten Kafkesque State of Denmark!

A ruling is expected tomorrow October 23 at 13:00 hours local time.

If the ruling goes against the hostages, they are expected to appeal immediately.

Sources:

Politiken 21 oktober 2008 - Afgørelsen venter i sag om rabiate vers

Jyllands-Posten 21 oktober 2008 - Familiefar nægter at have spredt hademusik

Update October 23, 2008: The court rule in favour of the extradition order

Update October 31, 2008: The Newspaper Politiken confirms that the victims have appealed to a higher court:

Politiken October 31, 2008 - Landsretten skal afgøre udlevering af hadmusik-sælgere

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Related:

Deutsche Welle 7 October 2008 - Denmark to Extradite Neo-Nazi Music Producers to Germany

The Local August 27, 2008 - Frankfurt prosecutors arrest neo-Nazi music producers

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