ECAJ says Adelaide Institute is in contempt of Court
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has asked the Federal Court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the antisemitic, Holocaust-denying Adelaide Institute.
Fredrick Toben
They have also requested that action be taken against its current director, Peter Hartung.
The Institute’s previous director, Dr Fredrick Toben, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment earlier this month on 24 contempt charges of failing to remove offensive material from the Institute’s web site.
Robin Margo, SC, acting for the ECAJ Vice-President Jeremy Jones, told Adelaide’s Federal Court that Hartung had used the same web site to describe Toben’s sentence as imprisonment in a Nazi death camp. The web site also ran an article questioning the imprisonment and asking if it was “the final solution” for Toben.
He said that Toben had been ordered not to publish offensive material either by himself or through an agent or employeee and that “it can be inferred that Hartung is an agent of Toben.”
Judge Anthony Besanko is considering Toben’s leave to appeal the three months’ sentence and will hand down his decision on Tuesday. If he disallows the appeal, Toben will face immediate imprisonment.
