Bishop Williamson Found Guilty in Regensburg of "Inciting Hatred"

Edit: a man can be tried as many times in German courts as they need to get a verdict they like, apparently.

 Regensburg (kath.net/KNA)  The District Court of Regensburg has found British traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson (72) guilty of inciting hatred [Volksverhetzung] for a fine.  This will be 1,800 Euro, significantly lower than the 6,500 desired by the prosecutor.  The court had mitigated the sentence because +Williamson had tried after his interview with the Swedish broadcaster to keep his statements from spreading in Germany.  The attorney for the Bishop, Andreas Geipel, appealed immediately against the verdict after it was ruled.

+Williamson had estimated the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis at the most, at 300,000, and denied the existence of gas chambers.  The Judge, Andrea Hausladen said, that the Bishop had done this before running cameras and established his views at length over several minutes.  In conclusion of the recording he did not insist on any limitation of the use of the materials.  That was given as necessary for an intent to incite hatred.

+Williamson could have easily said that he didn't want any distribution in Germany, said the Judge.  "He didn't do that."   Otherwise the defendant had to know that other media would report over this explosive interview.  In this manner he at least tacitly approved of its distribution.  The defendant had, according to his earlier legal representative, Maximilian Krah, regretted his statements.  More importantly was the time of the broadcast, stressed Hausladen.

As far as the statement of Krah, that +Williamson had answered the questions of the journalists with "vanity and extensively" on the Holocaust, the Judge said: "Vanity sometimes leads one to do something which he later regrets."  As further grounds for the mitigating of the sentence, Hausladen introduced +Williamson's dismissal from the Society in October of last year, as well as the four year long duration of the proceedings.  The size of the penalty in consideration is difficult to ascertain. +Williamson lives at present exclusively on grants from friends.

His defender, Geipel described the verbal justification of the court as "not comprehensible".  The assertion that his client had pre-meditatively acted is an "innuendo".   Previous to the trial Geipel and his colleage Edgar Weiler spoke of a previous judgement of +Williamson.  In his pleading they talked about the expressions of the traditional Bishop, that they had been completely careless.  They moved for a dismissal to all public bodies.

+Williamson had already been condemned in a trial for a fine.  The decision was dismissed in February of 2012 by Nurenburg Superior Court because of procedural errors.

With his comments the Briton sparked an international scandal, because shortly after the publication of the interview, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI. had lifted the excommunications of +Williamson and three other traditionalist bishops. Later the Vatican explained, that the pope did not know about +Williamson's remarks about the Holocaust.

Kath.net...