Outrage is mounting following the jailing of an Austrian Jewish writer who tried to claim compensation from the Austrian state over the theft of his ancestors' home by the Nazis in 1938.
Stephan Templ, who in 2001 published a critical book about restitution in Austria, was incarcerated this week and is to remain in jail for one year, convicted of having defrauded the state.
Mr Templ, 54, was accused of deliberately failing to inform the state about his aunt - a potential claimant - when he initiated his restitution case.
A state prosecutor accused Mr Templ of defrauding Austria on the grounds that had his aunt chosen not to claim her share of the restitution money, it could have gone to the state.
In a statement published on their website, Mr Templ's London-based lawyers, Amsterdam & Partners, said: "[The court claimed that] by not naming his aunt in the application for restitution - something there was no
obligation to do and the results of which he could not have foreseen - Templ had aimed to deceive the restitution panel. This argument runs contrary to both the restitution and criminal laws of Austria, as well as universal legal principles."
Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, called the jailing "absolutely outrageous". He was one of 75 historians from around the world who signed a letter protesting against the sentence. The letter was sent to Hans Peter Manz, Austrian ambassador to the US, on September 21. As yet there has been no response.
Ahead of his imprisonment, Mr Templ told Haaretz his case was "Kafkaesque" and "completely absurd".
Mr Templ's crime was "his omission of the name of an estranged relative from his application for the return of his family's seized property", the 75 historians wrote. "This matter could have been resolved by the Templ family in civil court."
The ADL has become involved, with its new national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, appealing to Austrian President Heinz Fischer for a pardon.
According to the BBC, Austrian journalist Karl Pfeifer has said he believed Mr Templ was prosecuted and jailed because "he touched a nerve with his book, which reminded the Austrians of how they stole Jewish property".
The case dates to 2005, when, on behalf of his Shoah-survivor mother, Mr Templ applied for the restitution of a former sanatorium in Vienna that the Nazis had confiscated from their ancestor, Lothar Fürth.
Mr Templ's mother, who received 1.1 million, was one of 40 heirs to receive compensation for their part-ownership of the building, which was sold in 2010.
However, in April 2013, the court found Mr Templ guilty of failing to mention another possible heir - his 84-year-old aunt, who was reportedly estranged from his mother.
A regional court in Vienna had sentenced Mr Templ to three years in jail for serious fraud, with the Austrian state as victim. An appeal was rejected, but a regional court reduced the sentence to one year in jail with two years' probation.
●Mother’s Vienna court hell
British mother Beth Alexander first hit the headlines four years ago, after a Viennese court awarded sole custody of her then three-year-old twin sons to her Austrian ex-husband, Dr Michael Schlesinger – in a case that has been labelled "tragic" and "Kafkaesque".
In 2013, an appeal to overturn the court's decision was rejected. Ms Alexander was granted extremely limited visitation rights with her sons – every Tuesday for six hours and every other Sunday. This was despite the court admitting that a previous judgment denying her custody because she suffered from mental illness was wrong.
Ms Alexander applied to take the case to Austria's Supreme Court, but was turned down.
Manchester-born Ms Alexander has repeatedly claimed she is facing "corruption" inside the Austrian judicial system. Her case gained international attention and support, with a website set up that charted her struggle to see her sons, and leading figures in the community, including Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, pledging their support.
But last year, Ms Alexander faced a fresh setback. An injunction issued by an Austrian court ordered her to remove all photos of her sons from her campaign website, as well as any pictures posted on social media accounts. She was also forbidden from publicising details of the case.
Charlotte Oliver
