Duke Expelled From Czech Republic

White supremacist leader David Duke was expelled from the Czech Republic less than 24 hours after Czech Republic police arrested him on charges of denying the Holocaust and promoting neo-Nazi ideology, his lawyer said.

A special operations police squad nabbed Duke last Friday shortly after he arrived in the Czech Republic at the invitation of Czech neo-Nazis. Duke was scheduled to give lectures in Prague and Brno.

A police spokesman told a Czech news agency that no charges would be brought against Duke, a former Klan leader and neo-Nazi. Denying the holocaust and promoting white supremacist ideology are crimes punishable by up to three years in prison in the Czech Republic.

Czech media reported that hundreds of right-wing extremists demonstrated in support of Duke in a northern Czech town last Saturday.

By that time, however, Duke was already out of the country, according to a post to his personal website, in which he denied that he’d traveled to the Czech Republic to deny the Holocaust or to promote neo-Nazism.

“I was going to lecture about the Israeli influence over American and European foreign policy and the International Zionist Banking firms that are leading America and the world to financial oblivion, globalist hegemony and unending war,” he wrote.

Despite the fact that he’s not actually facing criminal charges, Duke issued an urgent fundraising plea for his “legal defense fund.” In 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to felony mail and tax fraud charges for raising money for similar political purposes and using it for home improvement and gambling, among other things. He served 15 months in a federal prison and was fined $10,000.