Hamburg
A neo-Nazi went on trial in Hamburg this week for praising the 9/11 attacks on America. Horst Mahler, 66, a former leftist guerrilla and now the lawyer for the extreme-right National Democratic Party, told German television the week after 9/11 that the attacks were “cruel but justified.” For that remark, he stands accused of “condoning an illegal act” and could face three years in prison. But at his trial he was unrepentant, saying the U.S. was “the bloodiest and most imperialist power the world has ever seen” and that Jews were bent on “world domination.” German law does not protect freedom of speech absolutely; banned sentiments include support for Nazis and denying the Holocaust.
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