Bail denied: court fears Irving might "abscond"

The BBC has reported:

Austrians refuse bail for Irving

Austrian authorities have refused bail for British historian David Irving, who is facing Holocaust denial charges.

Mr Irving, 67, was arrested on 11 November in connection with two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989.

Mr Irving's lawyer has said the historian now no longer denies that gas chambers existed in Nazi death camps.

[...]

A court in Vienna ruled on Friday that Mr Irving must stay in custody as there was a risk he could abscond.

His lawyer Elmar Kresbach had offered to post bail.

[...]

Mr Irving sued US historian Deborah Lipstadt in London in 2000 for labelling him a Holocaust denier. He lost in a comprehensive verdict.

Despite the mortal blow to his reputation in 2000, he remains a showman and may well relish the opportunity to grandstand before a wider audience if put on trial, BBC legal affairs analyst Jon Silverman says.

In his books, Mr Irving has argued that the scale of the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis in World War II has been exaggerated.

He has also claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler knew nothing of the Holocaust.

Mr Irving was previously arrested in Austria in 1984.