Argentina jails four neo-Nazis

BUENOS AIRES, May 28 (JTA) — Four neo-Nazis have been sentenced by an Argentine court for distributing anti-Semitic pamphlets. One of the men, a medical doctor, was ordered to serve 30 months in jail with no parole. His accomplices were each sentenced to two-year suspended terms and ordered to attend a human rights seminar. The four were arrested in 1996 in connection with the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of La Tablada, west of Buenos Aires. They were eventually cleared of those charges, but were charged with “fostering religious and ideological hatred” after police found 24,700 copies of an anti-Semitic leaflet in their homes. The leaflet stated that there is “a Jewish plan to rule Argentina, the first step of which is total domination of the state.” According to the leaflet, “Jews have all politicians under their thumb” and “by the year 2000 will start a Christian genocide.” It named Argentine President Carlos Menem, who is a Catholic of Syrian descent, as “head of the Jewish plot.” The court’s ruling is the second instance in which racists were charged under the country’s hate-crimes law — last month three skinheads were sentenced to three years in jail.