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Irving refused
Aussie visa again
Controversial British historian David Irving
has
been refused entry into Australia for a third time
17 January
2003
news.ninemsn.com.au/World/story_13047.asp?MSID=0312e15ab0994f9484b
Irving, whose theories denying that the holocaust
happened have caused
outrage among Jewish communities and historians
worldwide, received
his refusal notice from the Australian government last
week, a year
after applying for a tourist visa.
He was previously refused entry in 1993 and 1996.
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock rejected Irving's
application for
a visa after he failed the character test.
Irving, whose daughter Beatrice is an Australian citizen
living in
Brisbane, said he had engaged a Perth firm of solicitors
to fight his
refusal, even though the government said he could not
appeal.
"Thousands of Australians want to hear me speak,
they have been denied that right," Irving said on
Friday.
"Arsonists are allowed to visit. Weirdos and whackos
with real
criminal records are allowed to visit but someone with
an artificial
criminal record is not allowed.
"My criminal record is artificial. The law I broke in
Germany doesn't
exist anywhere else in the world."
In its decision, the Australian High Commission in
London said it
could not be assumed Irving would abide by Australian
law.
"Mr Irving's behaviour demonstrates a defiance and
contempt for the
laws of some of the countries he visited," it wrote in
its report.
"His conduct was deemed serious enough by those
countries to see him
deported and excluded.
"It is difficult to determine that Mr Irving wouldn't
behave similarly
whilst in Australia."
Irving was convicted in Germany in 1992 for defaming the
memory of the
dead and was expelled from the country the following
year.
He was also deported from Canada in 1992 for lying to an
Immigration
Adjudicator and in 1994, a British High Court judge
found he gave
false evidence.
He also owes the Australian government $35,140 after
previous failed
appeals.
©-free 2002 Adelaide Institute
