American Neo-Nazi Refuses to Testify at His Trial in Germany

Sporting a Hitler-like mustache and haircut, an American neo-Nazi refused Thursday to testify at his trial on charges that he sent banned anti-Semitic material to fascists in Germany, saying the charges are illegal.

Gary Rex Lauck mailed the hate literature from Nebraska for two decades, until he was arrested last year at a neo-Nazi convention in Denmark, where he was no longer protected by U.S. free-speech guarantees.

Lauck, who turns 43 on Sunday, is accused of being the German fascists’ main supplier of anti-Semitic brochures, films and other propaganda. Such material is illegal in Germany under a constitution the Allies imposed after World War II.

If convicted, Lauck faces a maximum of five years in prison.

Dressed in a dark suit and wearing his hair parted like Hitler’s, Lauck confirmed his identity in German and answered a few questions from the judge at Hamburg State Court but otherwise refused to testify. At times he whispered to his attorney, smiled and yawned during the 90-minute reading of the 38-count indictment.

Defense attorney Hans-Otto Sieg said his client refused to cooperate because “he feels he is being tried illegally.” Sieg asked Judge Bertram Reuss to stop the trial, but Reuss rejected his argument that the Danes were wrong to extradite Lauck.

The judge read from Lauck’s literature praising Hitler, slandering Jews, denying the Holocaust and calling for the restoration of a Nazi-run German Reich. All the statements are illegal in Germany.

The trial is expected to last through the summer.