GERMANY: A member of Germany's extreme-right National Democratic Party (NPD) went on trial in Hamburg yesterday for saying the September 11th attacks were "timely" and "justified".
Mr Horst Mahler, a 66-year-old lawyer, made the comments on national television shortly after September 11th when he was asked how he felt about the attacks.
"It was a shock and at the same time the feeling: 'Finally! Finally they've been hit in the heart'," he said. "That will probably get them thinking. And because of that I say that the act, though terrible, was justified." Later in the interview he said it was "high time" for the attack.
Mr Mahler said yesterday that although his comments had been taken out of context, he still stood by them. He described the US as the "bloodiest and most imperial power that the world has ever seen" and said that a conviction would be "the end of freedom of opinion".
Mr Mahler is a well-known figure in German life as a co-founder of the left-wing terrorist group the Red Army Faction. When he went on trial for terrorist activities in 1970 he was represented in court by the present Interior Minister, Mr Otto Schily.
Now Mr Mahler has gone over to the other side to join the extreme-right. The trial was postponed yesterday to allow time for further witnesses to be called.