Austria: Extreme author arrested on Holocaust denial charges

Austrian police have arrested controversial British historian David Irving on a warrant accusing him of denying the Holocaust, the Interior Ministry said today.

Irving was arrested last Friday in Styria province said police Maj. Rudolf Golia, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, and transferred to judicial prison in Graz, the provincial capital.

He was detained on a warrant issued in 1989 under Austrian laws making Holocaust denial a crime, Golia said.

Irving, a British historian, has in the past faced allegations of spreading anti-Semitic and racist ideas.

He is the author of nearly 30 books, including Hitler’s War, which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.

The Austria Press Agency said Irving remained in custody.