ATHENS (EJP)---The trial of lawyer Kostas Plevris and of the extreme-right newspaper Eleftheros Cosmos on charges of breaking the anti-racism law, which opened last week, was postponed until December 3 due to the increased workload of judges in the context of the Greek general elections.

Plevris, the author of the book “Jews: The Whole Truth,” has been accused of publishing several anti-Semitic articles in the newspaper and “inciting actions that could provoke discrimination, hatred and violence against persons and groups of persons, solely because of their racial and ethnic origins.”

He denies the charges.

In his 1,400 page book, Plevris glorifies Hitler and calls for the extermination of the Jews. He declares himself “a Nazi, a fascist, a racist, an anti-democrat, an anti-Semite."

Hitler is only criticized for not clearing Europe of the Jews. “Afterwards, history of humankind will accuse him (Hitler) of having done nothing to rid Europe of the Jews, though he could,” the author writes.

The far-right populist party LAOS will probably meet the 3% vote threshold needed to enter Parliament for the first time, following Sunday's general election in Greece. The party is seen by many as xenophobic and anti-Semitics.  It advocates closer ties to the Greek Orthodox Church, a quota on immigration and the deportation of many immigrants already in the country.

He adds:”They rightly preserve the camp (Auschwitz) at a good condition, because nobody knows what might happen in the future.”

Once the book was published in May 2006, the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), an NGO that monitors human rights in Greece, immediately filled a suite against it under the anti-discrimination law.

But a district attorney later dropped the charge of discrimination and instead charged the book with a lesser offence of disseminating false facts.

The anti-Nazi Organization of Greece and the Greek Jewish umbrella organization Central Jewish Board of Greece (CJBG) filled a suit to oblige the district attorney to accept the charge of discrimination.

The CJBG is demanding a financial compensation of one Euro.

The trial had a rocky start for the Jewish community when district attorney L. Lazarakos moved to have the GHM and the CJBG removed from the trial claiming that no individual Jew was in any immediate danger and that two organizations had no legal claim or standing.

The three judges accepted Lazarakos’s argument.

The district attorney also surprised the court when he called the book "a scientific research."

‘Elefteros Kosmos’ (Free World) is a marginal extreme right wing weekly with no more than 800 copies in circulation. Plevris is also appearing on a small TV station “Extra.”

According to the Greek Helsinki Monitor and the anti-Nazi organization of Greece, this trial is of great importance.

A conviction based on the anti-discrimination law would constitute a legal precedent allowing for further prosecutions in the future against anti-Semitic literature in Greece.

Dozens of pro-Hitler magazines and books or specifically anti-Semitic – like the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” - are being sold in nearly every kiosk and in bookstores in the country.

However nothing is done to deal with this hatred and Nazi propaganda despite the existence of anti-discrimination law.

The reasoning of the courts is that prosecuting this type of literature constitutes a violation of free speech.

Anti-Semitism in Greece, although not violent and institutionalized, is not a marginal ideology of a minority but is embedded in the mainstream society and manifests itself in religious contexts, education, politics and the media.

Recent research showed that 24% of Greeks do not want to have a Jew as a neighbour.

The Greek mainstream media is one of the most fiercely anti-Israeli in Europe.

Around 4,000 Jews live today in Greece.