Government and Policy

China defends criticisms of its legal system

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-10-22 17:15

Gloves off to Subversions

In 2005, German citizen and Canadian permanent resident Ernst Zündel, a neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier, was deported by the Canadian government for his publishing literature that was likely to incite hatred and for being a threat to national security. Two years later in his native Germany, he was sentenced to five years in prison for "inciting racial hatred." During that time, the cases were highly publicized in Canada, Germany and other Western media.

Actually, the Zündel case is far from isolated. Fully aware of the dangers that seditious conspiracy poses to national security, Western countries stipulate in great detail in their legal regulations the crimes of sedition and subversion. And they won't treat the violators with kid gloves in law enforcement.

In July 1948, the Truman administration sent out police officers to arrest all 12 members of the American Communist Party's National Committee. They were sentenced the next year on charges of "organizing subversive units, sedition against government, and advocating overthrowing the US government by violence." In 1985, the State Court in Florida sentenced Leon Mark to jail for "advocating public revolt against policemen with the intention of causing violence and public disturbance."

In 2003, members of the neo-Nazi rock band Landser from Germany were jailed for publishing materials online that incite racial hatred.

In February 2006, English historian and writer David Irving was sentenced to eight years in jail by an Austrian court after pleading guilty to denying in his book that the Holocaust took place.

In 2007, French far-right leader Bruno Gollnisch was condemned to three months in prison on probation for "questioning the number of Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust."

International judicial organizations also have convicted on charges of subversion and sedition. In 2000, Belgian journalist George Ruggiu was sentenced to 12 years in jail by the International Criminal Court for his role as a radio presenter in inciting racial hatred and violence during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Three years later in 2003, Rwandan journalist Hassan Ngeze was jailed for life by the same court for using the media to incite and execute the genocidal campaign against Tutsis and moderate Hutus.