Pedro Varela

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Charge:	Hate Crime - speech only
Sentence:	5 years
Years Imprisoned:	1
Year Crime:	1998
Year Convicted:	1998
Year Cleared:	1999
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Spain
County or Region of Crime:
City of Crime:
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Pedro Varela was convicted on November 16, 1998 in a Barcelona, Spain of inciting racial hatred and of denying or justifying genocide. Varela owned a book store that sold books that disputed certain aspects of the officially accepted version of the Holocaust. Varela was sentenced to five years in prison and fined 720,000 pesetas (about $5,000). Varela was the first person charged and convicted of violating the "Holocaust denial" law. In April 1999 the Supreme Court of Catalonia ruled the verdict, as well as the law the verdict was based on, Article 607 of the Spanish Penal Code, is illegal. The three judge panel unanimously concluded the law violates human rights by depriving every individual of his or her basic human rights to freedom of speech and expession of opinon (UN-Charter, Article 19). The charged against Pedro Varela were dismissed. 20,000 books seized from Varela's bookstore were also returned."
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:	In April 1999 the Supreme Court of Catalonia overturned the verdict against Pedro Varela.
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Was Perpetrator Identified?
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Sex:	Male
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Information Source 1:	"Spanish Court Suspends Varela Verdict, By Mark Weber, The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 18, no. 2, 1999, p. 29."
Information Location 1:	http://www.vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/18/2/Weber29.html
Information Source 2:	"Pedro Varela's Conviction Overturned, The Nizkor Project, April 30, 2009"
Information Location 2:	http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/ftp.py?people//v/varela.pedro/conviction-overturned.990430
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Pedro Varela

Charge:

Hate Crime - speech only

Sentence:

5 years

Years Imprisoned:

1

Year Crime:

1998

Year Convicted:

1998

Year Cleared:

1999

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Spain

County or Region of Crime:

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

In April 1999 the Supreme Court of Catalonia overturned the verdict against Pedro Varela.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Information Source 1:

"Spanish Court Suspends Varela Verdict, By Mark Weber, The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 18, no. 2, 1999, p. 29."

Information Location 1:

http://www.vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/18/2/Weber29.html

Information Source 2:

"Pedro Varela's Conviction Overturned, The Nizkor Project, April 30, 2009"

Information Location 2:

http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/ftp.py?people//v/varela.pedro/conviction-overturned.990430

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Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: