Ernst Zuendel, a neo-Nazi who has lived in North America for most of his life, was on trial Tuesday in Germany for denying the Holocaust.

Zuendel, 66, who was deported from Canada eight months ago, has been charged with incitement, libel and disparaging the dead as he wrote books and set up website venerating Adolf Hitler, mocking the persecuted and denying the Holocuast.

Soon after the trial opened in the southwestern city of Mannheim, Judge Rich Meinerzhagen ordered defence lawyer Horst Mahler expelled from the trial since he was forbidden from practicing earlier this year for distributing anti-Semitic propaganda.

The court will hear details of Zuendel's US website and how it attacked Jews. If convicted, Zuendel could be in prison for up to five years.

Zuendel, who emigrated from Germany to Canada in 1958 and moved to the United States later, was expelled back to Canada in 2003 for alleged immigration violations.

Canada sent him to Germany in March as authorities accused him of posing a threat to national and international security.

The German authorities accuse Zuendel of anti-Semitic activities, including repeatedly denying the Holocaust in books and on his website.

Zuendel wrote the book The Hitler We Loved and Why and operated Samisdat Publishers, a leading distributor of Nazi propaganda since late 1970s.

Source: Xinhua