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Friday August 9, 1996

Holocaust denier David Irving loses appeal to enter Australia

JEREMY JONES
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

SYDNEY, Australia -- British Holocaust denier David Irving has lost another bid to enter Australia.

The country's highest appeals court last week rejected his attempt to have earlier decisions -- one by a judge, the other by a past immigration minister -- reversed.

In arguing against those decisions, Irving said it was not relevant to his application that he had been deported from Canada, convicted in West Germany of defaming the memory of the dead, refused entry to Italy and South Africa and jailed in England for contempt of court.

The court, in turning down Irving's application, noted that it was not its function to determine whether Irving was of good character, but simply that it needed to be satisfied that there were reasonable grounds for the government's refusal of his visa application.

Irving, the author of several books that deny that the Holocaust took place, has also spoken at rallies and meetings of Holocaust deniers and other extreme right-wing groups in Europe and the Americas.

In December 1992, Irving applied to come to Australia on a speaking tour.

But he was refused a visa in February 1993 on the grounds that he was "likely to become involved in activities disruptive to the Australian community or a group within the Australian community."

Irving has been appealing the decision ever since.

After his first visa request was refused, he released a Holocaust-denial video that included attacks on Australian Jewish community leaders and journalists.

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