Suit against Iranian Prez for Holocaust denial

Hitting back at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Israelis have filed a lawsuit charging him with denial of Holocaust, incitement to hatred and violation of UN conventions.

Hitting back at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a group of Israelis have filed a criminal lawsuit in a German court, accusing him of charges like denial of the Holocaust, incitement to hatred and violation of UN conventions.

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The decision to take legal action in Germany was taken in view of the country's tough anti-Holocaust denial laws, passed in 1993, which ban direct and indirect denial of the tragedy, as well as "harming the memory of the dead."

The lawsuit was brought by an Israeli lawyer and an organization called the Civil Coalition which is a human rights institute working both in Israel and abroad, and submitted to the constitutional court in Karlsruhe, considered the strongest constitutional court in Europe.

The submission of the lawsuit obligates Germany's chief prosecutor to launch criminal proceedings against the Iranian president.

The Israeli salvo follows a series of highly publicised comments by the Iranian President denying the authenticity of the human tragedy which resulted in the death of more than six million Jews.

The lawsuit notes that criminal proceedings against Ahmadinejad have not been initiated anywhere the world, and that the chances that such a procedure would be launched in Iran are slim.