Austrian writer Gerd Honsik has been found guilty by a court in Austria of "denying the Holocaust and spreading Nazi ideas".

The court in Vienna sentenced the ultra-rightist author to five years in jail on Monday.

In 1992, Honsik was given 18 months in prison for his book "Acquittal for Hitler?" but fled to Spain during the appeal proceedings. He was arrested there in 2007 and extradited to Austria.

The court says the 67-year-old writer had continued to promote his past pro-Nazi ideology on the internet. Both Honsik and the public prosecutor have announced their intention to appeal against the latest sentence.

Honsik says he is a social democrat that had only "rejected the textbook wisdom that demonizes National Socialism."

"I want to be allowed to defend myself. I have nothing to lose. Statistically, I have only nine years to live," Reuters quoted him as saying.

He also underlined the existence of gas chambers during World War II, arguing he had only ruled them out "wherever I had not verified the (facts) myself."

DB/HGL