Can you please circulate the following new appeal letter to everyone that might be interested in donating, or at least, campaigning on behalf of the Heretical Two

I am writing to you with regard to the Heretical Two - Simon Sheppard and Steve Whittle (Luke O’Farrell) who were convicted at Leeds Crown Court last July on eleven counts and five counts respectively of so called ‘speech crime’. Conviction for these ‘ speech crimes’ is always very likely, as it is no longer necessary to prove intent to ‘stir up racial hatred’, as it is described in the emotive, insulting and deliberately misleading and imprecise language of these laws. Simon and Steve sought political asylum in the USA before they could be sentenced and are currently being held in prison. Subsequently Simon has been convicted in his absence on Thursday January 8, 2009 on a further six counts of ‘speech crime’. Further details are available at www.heretical.com

The asylum hearings for the Heretical Two will be heard in Los Angeles in March 10, 12 and 24, 2009. It is critically important that both he, and Steve, should be professionally represented at the hearings. Through Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review, they have found an excellent American attorney, Bruce Leichty (who previously represented Ernst Zundel), but funds are needed to meet his fees.

The sum of $30,000 will be required. Half that sum has already been pledged on a “dollar for dollar” basis by a supporter, so it is up to revisionists and nationalists in England, Europe and America to raise the balance.

I wish to make the importance of this case abundantly clear. It is not limited to the particular case of these two men, who face long terms of imprisonment for ‘speech crime’ if ever they are sent back to England.

Sheppard and Whittle have been convicted by an English court for publications on a web server in Torrance, California, on the basis that an English court is entitled to assert jurisdiction over writings on the internet if they can be downloaded in England (and not, I should emphasise, on the basis of their nationality, so this case is even worse than Ernst Zundel’s. The basis of the German court’s assertion of jurisdiction in his case was that he is a German citizen. The courts of most countries whose legal systems derive from the Roman or Civil Law, such as Germany, assert worldwide jurisdiction over their own citizens).

Presumably, therefore the courts of any country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe enjoy the same universal, long arm jurisdiction against dissidents who publish on the internet, so rendering the protection of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America effectively illusory for any writer with the temerity to leave that country.

The asylum hearing in the case of the Heretical Two will set a precedent for dissidents all over Europe and in other lands whose benighted laws criminalise speech that outrages the selective sensibilities of their repressive political establishments. If it fails, there will be nowhere for such people to flee. If it succeeds, it will create a safe haven for dissidents and heretics, and profoundly humiliate the British authorities.

The question is not whether you like Sheppard and Whittle, or agree with their writings, or the other material posted on the Heretical site. It is, quite simply, whether you are prepared to help ensure the effective representation of two men seeking to set a vital precedent for genuine asylum seekers from oppressive, liberticidal regimes, seeking refuge in the world’s last true free speech zone.