The Greek Archeologists Association were outraged by the “unacceptable” charges brought against prominent German historian Heinz Richter by a prosecutor in Crete over his recent book on the “Battle of Crete” in WWII.

The prosecutor used a new Greek law against racism that was adopted in 2014 to claim that Richter’s book includes passages which constitute “denial of crimes of Nazism against the Cretan people with defamatory content”.

“The Association is deeply concerned about the prosecution of German historian and university professor Heinz Richter under Article 2 of the antiracist law. It also considers it unacceptable to prosecute a historian for the views expressed in a scientific publication,” the union said.

“Regardless of any scientific disagreements on Dr. Richter’s work, freedom of expression and scientific research must be a given and self-evident, as mandated by the Constitution,” it added. It noted that scientific dialog is always conducted through an exchange of arguments and without criminalizing views.

Richter is known for his work on the history of World War II in the Balkans, the history of modern Greece and Cyprus, and met in 2000 by the then Greek president Konstantinos Stefanopoulos for his “services to Greek history.” Back then he had received the Gold Cross of the Order of the Phoenix.