[JURIST] A former defense lawyer for German Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel [ADL profile; JURIST news archive] was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison Monday after being convicted of incitement and insulting the court during Zundel's original trial in 2005. Throughout Zundel's trial, Sylvia Stolz [Tagespiegel profile, in German; JURIST report] repeatedly denied the Holocaust, described Jews as "enemy people," distributed a legal document that concluded with the words "Heil Hitler," and denounced the Mannheim State Court [official website] as a "tool of foreign domination." She told AP, "We are under foreign occupation, and this foreign occupation has portrayed Adolf Hitler as a devil for 60 years, but that is not true." Stolz was also disbarred for five years.

In 2005, Zundel's first trial was delayed when a judge removed Stolz from the defense team [JURIST report]. In February 2007, Zundel was convicted [JURIST report] of 14 counts of incitement, libel and disparaging the dead and sentenced to five years in prison. Holocaust denial constitutes a crime under Section 130 (3) [text] of the German Federal Criminal Code. AP has more.