So a British guy in Austria gets sentenced to 3 years in prison for denying that the Holocaust happened.

Austrian prosecutors want British historian David Irving to spend more time in prison, saying his three-year sentence for denying the Holocaust is too lenient.

Irving could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to charges of denying the Holocaust. Under Austrian law, it is a crime to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust.

Say what?

Is it against the law to say the sun goes around the earth? To say black is white or white is black? That water isn't wet?

Somebody please tell me why this isn't a shitty-ass law. I admit not being well-versed in Austrian law, but I assumed most Western European countries had some basic sanctity for free speech (see Denmark).

This is basically a thought-crime. If the guy was inciting violence against Jews (e.g., delivering speeches urging people to shoot or bomb Jews in their neighborhoods), well...then you might have a case.

But just believing that the Holocaust didn't happen, and talking about it? What the fuck?

Don't get me wrong...the guy's a nutjob. A racist, fascist nutjob. But I don't see a crime here.

Tell me where I'm wrong.