Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Europe Limited
Press Association Newsfile

May 5, 2000, Friday 07:53 AM Eastern Time

"IRVING CASE VICTORS SEEK #500,000 COSTS 'ON ACCOUNT'"

by Jan Colley, PA News

   A High Court judge was today asked to order historian David Irving to
pay #500,000 on account towards the defence costs incurred in his failed
libel action over a claim that he was a Holocaust denier.

Mr Irving was at London's Law Courts to hear Heather Rogers, counsel for
Penguin Books, make the application on behalf of them and of Deborah
Lipstadt, author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth
and Memory.

Last month, Mr Justice Gray rejected 62-year-old Mr Irving's action over
the book which he claimed had destroyed his livelihood and generated
waves of hatred against him.

Mr Irving, the author of Hitler's War, was facing a defence costs bill
estimated at over #2 million after the judge ruled in the strongest
terms that he was both anti-Semitic and a racist.

Miss Rogers told Mr Justice Gray today that over #1 million had already
been paid out to defence experts, who compiled evidence for the 32-day
case, and that defence solicitors had not yet produced their own bill of
costs.

She argued that the costs officer, who the judge has ordered should make
a detailed assessment of what was due, should deal with Mr Irving's
claim that the defence's experts and counsel were paid too much.

She submitted that the judge had the power to make an order for payment
of #500,000 on account of costs and that it was a waste of time and
money to argue the matter further in court.

The hearing is expected to end later today.

==
The Times of London
May 2, 2000 (Diary)
                      

        Revised brief

 DAVID IRVING, the revisionist
 historian, has been dumped by his
 solicitors on "ideological grounds" as
 he battles to reverse the ruling in his
 failed High Court libel action. 

 Irving, who will appear in the High
 Court today to appeal against his
 liability for the vast costs of the case
 against the American academic
 Deborah Lipstadt, has been told by
 Goldsmiths solicitors that they will
 not represent him beyond today's
 hearing. 

 Their decision - which they say is
 due to the opposition of one of the
 partners, rather than the fear that they
 won't get paid - comes five days
 before the deadline for Irving to
 appeal against the judgment, in which
 the judge branded him a Holocaust denier. 

 "I think this will only generate more
 anti-Semitic feeling," claims Irving,
 who believes the total costs of the
 case will come to around #5 million.
 "They were recommended to me by
 Count Nikolai Tolstoy, who assured
 me they were fearless. People do this
 to me, then accuse me of being
 anti-Semitic when I complain. It is
 against the Law Society's code of
 conduct. I will ask the judge to force
 them to continue representing me." 

==

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