MANNHEIM, Germany — Ernst Zundel, the far-right activist deported from Canada in 2005, was released from a German prison Monday after serving a five-year sentence for denying the Holocaust.
A crowd of some 20 supporters clapped and shouted "bravo" as Zundel emerged from the prison in Mannheim.
The 70-year-old Zundel said he was not sure if he would return to Canada, from where he was deported to face 14 counts of inciting hatred for years of anti-Semitic activities.
Zundel was accused of contributing to a website devoted to denying the Holocaust -- a crime in Germany.
Born in Germany in 1939, Zundel emigrated to Canada in 1958 and lived in Toronto and Montreal until 2001. Officials twice rejected his attempts to obtain Canadian citizenship, and he moved to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., until being deported to Canada in 2003 for alleged immigration violations.
In February 2005, Federal Court of Canada Justice Pierre Blais ruled that Zundel's activities were not only a threat to national security, but "the international community of nations" as well, clearing the way for his deportation to Germany.
Blais found Zundel to be a hate-monger who posed a threat to national security because of his close association with white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups that had resorted to violence to press their political and social causes.
Zundel's lawyer at the time said he was treated unfairly by the Canadian legal system but that no one was interested in protecting the rights of unpopular people.
Zundel spent the last two years of his time in Canada in solitary confinement in a Toronto jail under anti-terrorism legislation. Despite his long stay in Canada, he was not able to convert his landed immigrant status into citizenship.
Monday, March 1, 2010 
