Charges against neo-Nazi dropped

By The Associated Press

12.08.01

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LINCOLN, Neb. — Charges against a self-described neo-Nazi who spent years in a German prison for distributing anti-Jewish propaganda were dropped on Dec. 4 after a judge ruled there was no case against him.

Gary Lauck had faced up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for failing to disclose on a handgun permit application in Lincoln that he was convicted by a German court in 1996 for inciting racial hatred.

Lauck marked "no" to a question on the application that asked if he had ever been convicted of a crime punishable by one year or more in prison.

However, Judge Steven Burns dismissed the charges after the German statutes pertaining to Lauck's conviction were translated into English.

Burns noted that another portion of the gun permit question said: "A 'yes' answer is not required if .... under the law where the conviction occurred, you are not prohibited from receiving or possessing any firearm."

Burns said he could find no such gun prohibition in the German law pertaining to Lauck's conviction.

"Taxpayers' money was wasted for two years," a triumphant Lauck said after leaving the courtroom. "We have been debating German laws in an American court."

Prosecutor Joe Kelly declined comment.

Lauck thwarted German authorities for two decades, taking advantage of his base in the United States to act as the main supplier of hate literature to German fascists.

Printing or possessing neo-Nazi material is a crime in Germany under laws Americans helped formulate at the end of World War II.

In 1995, Lauck was arrested on an international warrant from Germany while attending a convention of neo-Nazis in Denmark. He spent about four years in prison and was deported by Germany in early 1999.

The 48-year-old Lincoln man argued last January before the Nebraska Supreme Court that the acts leading to his conviction in Germany would be protected speech in this country.

The high court rejected his appeal, saying the court lacked jurisdiction.

Federal and state laws prohibit handgun permits for anyone convicted of a crime that carries a prison sentence of one year or more.

Prosecutors charged Lauck with providing false information on a handgun certificate application, a felony.

Robert Hays, a deputy county public defender, argued that Lauck could be prosecuted under the handgun statute only if he provided false information about his name, Social Security number, address or birth date.

Hays said Lauck's conviction would violate his free-speech rights because the German conviction was for acts protected by the First Amendment in the United States.

Prosecutors said that would undermine the purpose of the handgun law, which is meant to stop convicted felons from purchasing weapons.

Lauck maintains the handgun law would permit prosecution of people who violated foreign laws that most Americans would abhor.

Dubbed the Farmbelt Fuehrer, Lauck used a Lincoln mailing address for the National Socialist German Workers Party-Overseas Organization. He once said Jews were treated "too nicely" in Nazi concentration camps and claimed Jews were the "main belligerents" in World War II.

Lauck said he now works as mail-order and Web site consultant in Lincoln.

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Neo-Nazi to continue fight for gun permit denied because of crime abroad
U.S. citizen, Nebraska resident says First Amendment would have protected hate speech he was convicted of in Germany.  08.09.99