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REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA
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Tel. 01 40127/1209 or 1261
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Criminal Central Court
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Vienna
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Vienna, February 2, 2006
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TO: National Office for the
Protection of the Constitution
and the Fight Against Terrorism,
c/o Federal Police Directorate, Vienna
ATTN: Dr. Isabella WINTERSTEIGER
or Dr. ZANDER
RE: Criminal
Trial of David IRVING for Reactivation [Wiederbetätigung] -
Request for Trial Security
The main trial of the criminal
case against David IRVING under Section 3(g) of the
Prohibition Law has been set down for trial by jury at the
Central Criminal Court, Vienna, on Monday, February 20 and
Tuesday, February 21, 2006, starting each day at 9 a.m., Grand
Jury Courtroom
For this
reason the prompt introduction and application of
appropriate security measures are requested for guarding the
courtroom and securing the criminal trial itself.
Media
interest in this trial is already enormously large. Countless
television teams and journalists, mainly foreign, in fact from
around the entire world, have announced their coming, mainly
via the Internet.
In
consultation with me the President of the Central Criminal
Court, Vienna, Dr. Ulrike Psenner has on this occasion waived
the still-effective ban on filming and photography for the
Grand Jury Courtroom, so that before the trial begins we must
expect a corresponding onslaught by camera teams and news
photographers, who will all thereafter have to be cleared from
the courtroom in order not to delay the start of the main
proceedings too long.
Particularly with this trial it is
especially difficult to assess the special interest of
individual members of the audience or what definite "camp"
they may belong to. The fact is that the prisoner has been
receiving hundreds of letters and cards every month from all
over the world, which are to be counted without exception as
fan mail.[*] We cannot even begin to estimate how far this
interest in the various camps will translate into personal
attendance at the trial.
For this
reason, we request the transmittal of the above request with
special urgency
coupled with a plea for contact to be
established, as various points ought to be clarified well in
advance. For example, whether there should be an additional
entrance - security check,
coupled perhaps with procuring the personal ID details of
every single member of the public
- and whether the gallery to the Grand
Jury Courtroom ought not in fact to be left closed to the
public for better security and surveillance operations.
At the very
least, taking into account the innumerable pages on the
Internet on the subject of the trial -
at times the keyword "David Irving" yielded over 9
million hits (URLs) every day -
we may in any case be faced with operations to disrupt during
and before the main trial.
Yours
faithfully,
Peter Liebetreu
Trial President