The U.S.-based Lyndon LaRouche group has agreed to settle a defamation case initiated by a prominent member of the Melbourne Jewish community.
As part of the settlement, the extremist organization will pay legal costs and publish an apology to Michael Danby.
In 1993, the local LaRouchite group Citizens Electoral Council published a series of allegations against Danby, who at the time was the editor of the Australia/Israel Review.
Danby also has been heavily involved with the Australian Labor Party.
In a document called “Is the Anti-Defamation Commission Spying on You?” the council made what were apparently false claims about Danby’s activities in the Jewish and political communities.
Last month, two Australian federal parliamentarians joined Jewish community groups in a call for the government to investigate the activities of the Australian followers of LaRouche.
LaRouche’s ideology combines anti-Semitism and bizarre conspiracy theories, such as the claim that Queen Elizabeth heads a drug-pushing ring and that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was in the employ of the Soviet KGB.
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