Horst Mahler, a german holocaust denier who was once a far-left militant, dies at 89
Mahler died on Sunday at a hospital in Berlin, Jan Dollwetzel, who represented Mahler at a trial in 2023, told German news agency dpa. Mahler, born on Jan. 23, 1936, became a lawyer and in 1969 defended militants Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin in a trial. Shortly afterward, he went on to found the Red Army Faction with them. The group, which emerged from German student protests against the Vietnam War, killed 34 people and injured hundreds of others in a violent campaign against what members considered US imperialism and capitalist oppression of workers. It declared itself disbanded in 1998.
In 1970, Mahler was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison over various bank robberies with a far-left motivation. He distanced himself from his extremist past while in custody and was released after 10 years. In 1987, he was readmitted to practice as a lawyer with the help of his then-defense attorney Gerhard Schröder, who would later become German chancellor.
In the 1990s, Mahler switched to the opposite political extreme, becoming a member of the far-right National Democratic Party for a few years. He represented the party in 2001 in its case against an unsuccessful attempt by authorities to ban it. Mahler racked up several convictions for denying the Holocaust, which earned him sentences totaling 10 years, and while in prison wrote a 200-page antisemitic screed that was put on the internet by unknown culprits. In 2017, he fled to Hungary after being ordered to return to prison following a break from serving his sentence due to serious illness. Mahler said after he was arrested that he had requested asylum, but his claim was not confirmed by authorities. He was extradited to Germany and returned to prison. Mahler was released in October 2020 and lived in Kleinmachnow just outside Berlin. Another trial against him was shelved in April 2023 for health reasons and never resumed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
8 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Three men convicted in the theft of ancient Celtic gold coins from a German museum
Three men were convicted Tuesday in the theft of hundreds of ancient gold coins from a German museum in 2022 and handed prison sentences ranging up to 11 years. A court in the southern city of Ingolstadt convicted the defendants of gang robbery over the museum heist, German news agency dpa reported. A fourth defendant was acquitted of involvement in the museum heist but convicted for other thefts carried out by the group. The suspects from northern Germany were arrested months after a Nov. 22, 2022, break-in at the Celtic and Roman Museum in the Bavarian town of Manching in which 483 Celtic coins discovered during a 1999 archaeological dig were stolen. The coins dated to around 100 B.C. The coins and a lump of unworked gold were originally discovered during excavations of an ancient settlement in Manching, and authorities have said they are considered the biggest trove of Celtic gold found in the 20th century. Most of the stolen treasure is still missing, but investigators found lumps of gold on one of the suspects when he was arrested that appear to have resulted from part of the treasure being melted down. Investigators have said that cables were cut at a telecommunications hub, knocking out local networks before the heist, and that the thieves got in and out of the museum in nine minutes during the night without triggering an alarm. The four defendants were accused of a total of 20 break-ins or attempted robberies in Germany and neighboring Austria starting in 2014. Other cases involved safes or cash machines being broken into. The defendants didn't address the charges during the roughly six-month trial, but their lawyers called for their acquittal. The court sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four years and nine months to 11 years.
Arab News
9 hours ago
- Arab News
Syrian charged over Berlin Holocaust memorial stabbing
FRANKFURT: A Syrian man who allegedly supports the Daesh group has been charged with attempted murder over the stabbing of a Spanish tourist at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial, prosecutors said Tuesday. The suspect, a refugee partially identified as Wassim Al M., is said to have seriously injured the 30-year-old man at the landmark in the German capital in February. It was one of a series of attacks blamed on foreign nationals that fueled a bitter debate about immigration in the run-up to Germany's general election. The suspect 'shares the ideology of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State (IS)' and has 'radical Islamist and antisemitic views,' federal prosecutors said in a statement. He had traveled from the eastern city of Leipzig, where he had been living, to Berlin to target 'alleged infidels, whom he regarded as representatives of a Western form of society that he rejected,' prosecutors said. Shortly before the stabbing, the suspect, who was 19 at the time, sent a photo of himself to IS members so the group could claim responsibility for the attack, they said. The tourist, from the Basque Country in northern Spain, was wounded in the neck during the attack at Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a somber grid of concrete steles located near the Brandenburg Gate and the US embassy. The suspect, who was arrested shortly after the attack and is in pre-trial detention, has also been charged with causing serious bodily harm and attempted membership of a foreign terrorist organization. Officials said previously he had arrived in Germany in 2023. The attack was one of several which shocked Germany ahead of the general election, which saw a doubling in the vote-share for the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD). The election was won by the center-right CDU/CSU, which has since taken power at the head of a coalition and moved swiftly to introduce stricter curbs on immigration. The new government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz has signalled it is trying to resume deportations to Syria, which have been suspended since 2012.
Al Arabiya
9 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
UK PM Starmer will hold emergency cabinet to discuss Gaza peace plan
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will hold an emergency cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza and a proposed peace plan as he comes under mounting pressure from his own party to recognize a Palestinian state. Starmer has taken the rare step of recalling his cabinet during the summer holidays to discuss how to deliver more humanitarian aid to Gaza. In a meeting with US President Donald Trump in Scotland on Monday, Starmer discussed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and what he called the 'revolting' humanitarian crisis. Britain is working on the plan with France and Germany after a call between the leaders of the three countries last week. Starmer has not shared details of the plan, but over the weekend he compared the proposals to the 'coalition of the willing', the international effort to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in its war with Russia. Starmer's spokesman said he would discuss the plan with other international allies and countries in the Middle East. War has raged in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas for the past 22 months. Israel has been facing growing international criticism, which its government rejects, over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. With warnings people in Gaza are facing starvation, growing numbers of lawmakers in Starmer's Labor Party want him to recognize a Palestinian state to put pressure on Israel. British foreign minister David Lammy will attend a United Nations conference in New York on Tuesday to urge support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Successive British governments have said they will formally recognize a Palestinian state when the time is right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions. The issue has come to the fore after President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France would recognize Palestine as a state. Starmer has so far rejected plans to immediately recognize a Palestinian state, saying he was focused on 'practical solutions.' Last week, more than 200 British members of parliament from nine parties signed a letter Friday calling for an immediate recognition of a Palestinian state.
