More on Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

A little while ago I wrote about Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff who has been accused of hate speech in Austria because she dared to make certain criticism of Islam. Gates of Vienna gives the text of a speech she made at a conference sponsored by the International Free Press Society. What she says does not make for happy reading and this is what she says about here own case:

As most of you already know, nearly a year ago I was made aware that “hate speech” charges might be filed against me — I had “denigrated religious teachings” by giving one of my public lectures on Islam.

The possibility of my prosecution was not communicated to me directly, but through articles in the press.

It was not until last month that a court date was set for my case. Once again, I had to discover this fact in the press — in NEWS, the same left-wing newspaper that brought the original complaint against me. I was not officially notified of my hearing date until several days later.

The evidence used against me this past week was a transcript of a tape of my lecture, provided to the court by the same socialist newspaper. It included words that were not spoken by me, and words that were not spoken in public, which therefore were not a violation of the law.

But my case is not really about the law. It is a political trial, and like the trials of Geert Wilders and Jussi Halla-aho, it is intended to silence someone who speaks out against the barbaric nature of sharia law.

She also talks about the likely fate of free speech in the EU and its Member States under a combination of the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law, a noxious document if ever there was one and the European Arrest Warrant.

What I cannot quite find out at the moment is what the situation is precisely with her own legal case. Presumably it did start on the 23rd but she is not under arrest, which is a good thing. As soon as I find out more I shall post an update.