Czech court to reopen case of book casting doubt on the facts of the Holocaust in September
In late September, the Brno Municipal Court in the Czech Republic will begin reviewing the case of the release of Dissecting The Holocaust (Czech title Holocaust pod lupou), a book by Germar Rudolf casting doubt on the facts of the Holocaust. The trial was originally scheduled to start on Wednesday, 28 August, but an attorney for one of the defendants resigned.
Prosecutor Tereza Paseková informed journalists of the postponement. She is accusing four people and three companies of participating in an organized criminal group and of denying genocide.
There was significant interest in the trial on the part of the public, with about 20 people assembling outside the courtroom. None of them made it inside; after meeting with the parties to the case, presiding Judge Barbora Sýkorová rescheduled the trial for 25 September.
The charges concern more than 20 other titles in addition to Dissecting the Holocaust. Defendants Vítězslav Baránek, Pavel Kamas, Lukáš Novák and Erik Sedláček will hear the charges against them when the trial begins, as will legal representatives for the presses Guidemedia, Náš směr [Our Direction] and Nakladatelství Pavel Kamas [Pavel Kamas Press].
In the Czech Republic, Guidemedia published this book casting doubt on the facts of the Holocaust in 2016. The case is connected with a police raid conducted in June 2020 in Brno and other locations.
Detectives from the National Organized Crime Agency and the Austrian Police raided Guidemedia and performed house searches of the people behind the press. The indictment was brought one year later.
The four individuals named above and two other presses heard the charges against them. However, the first indictment was overturned on the basis of a complaint.
The Czech Police reopened the criminal investigation into these companies and individuals in the summer of 2023. Guidemedia has published Adolf Hitler’s speeches and faced previous charges of approving of genocide and supporting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms.
The Czech Supreme Court acquitted all of those charged in that previous case.
