Defiant U.S. neo-Nazi jailed by German court .
Andrew Gray
HAMBURG , Germany 1996-08-22
A Hamburg court sentenced U.S. neo-Nazi leader Gary Lauck on Thursday to four years in prison for pumping banned extremist propaganda into Germany from his base in the United States .
Lauck , from Lincoln , Nebraska , yelled a tirade of abuse at the court after his conviction for inciting racial hatred .
" The struggle will go on , " the 43-year-old shouted in German before being escorted out by security guards .
Lauck 's lawyer vowed he would appeal against the court 's decision , arguing that his client should have been set free because he had not committed any offence under German law .
The German government hailed the conviction as a major victory in the fight against neo-Nazism .
Lauck 's worldwide network has been the main source of anti-Semitic propaganda material flowing into Germany since the 1970s .
" Lauck possessed a well-oiled propaganda machine , honed during more than 20 years , " presiding judge Guenter Bertram told the court .
" He set up a propaganda cannon and fired it at Germany . "
said Bertram , who also read out extracts from Lauck 's material praising Hitler as " the greatest of all leaders " and describing the Nazi slaughter of millions of Jews as a myth .
Eager to put Lauck behind bars quickly and avoid a long and complex trial , prosecutor Bernd Mauruschat limited his charges to offences since 1994 .
He had demanded a five-year jail term but said he was satisfied with the court 's sentence .
Publishing and distributing neo-Nazi material is illegal in Germany but Lauck 's defence team had argued that U.S freedom of speech laws meant he was free to produce his swastika-covered books , magazines , videos and flags in his homeland .
Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said in a statement he " welcomed the prosecution and conviction of one of the ringleaders of international neo-Nazism and biggest distributers of vicious racist publications " .
" It is high time he was behind bars , " the opposition Social Democrats said in a statement .
Lauck , dressed in a sober blue suit and sporting his trademark Hitleresque black moustache , showed no sign of emotion as Bertram spent more than an hour reading out the verdict and explaining the court 's decision .
But as Lauck was about to be led away , he turned to reporters and blurted out a virtually incomprehensible quick-fire diatribe against the court .
" Neither the National Socialists ( Nazis ) nor the communists dared to kidnap an American citizen , " he shouted , in an oblique reference to his extradition to Germany from Denmark . "
That 's the truth . "
His attorney , Hans-Otto Sieg , told reporters outside the courtroom that the judges had not explained how a German court could judge someone for actions carried out in the United States .
Bertram said Lauck was obsessed by Nazism and devoted his life to leading his National Socialist German Workers ' Party Foreign Organisation ( NSDAP-AO ) , which derives its name from the full German title of Hitler 's Nazi party .
During the three-month trial , the court dealt mainly with issues of the NSDAP-AO 's " NS Kampfruf " ( " National Socialist Battle Cry " ) magazine , filled with references to Aryan supremacy and defamatory statements about Jews .
The court rejected Sieg 's argument that Lauck 's extradition from Denmark , where he was arrested in March last year at the request of German authorities , was illegal .
Lauck was also convicted of disseminating the symbols of anti-constitutional organisations .
He will probably be free in around two and a half years .
The court ruled that the 15 months he has spent in custody since his arrest should be subtracted from his prison term .