Horst Mahler
Horst MahlerReuters

The Hungarian courts ordered the extradition of Horst Mahler, a neo-Nazi and an infamous German Holocaust denier, who was caught in Hungary after escaping a prison sentence imposed on him in Germany.

Mahler, a neo-Nazi activist and Holocaust denier who was sentenced several times to prison terms for his statements against Jews and the Holocaust, was captured in the city of Sopron in Hungary about three weeks after he managed to escape from Germany.

Now a Budapest court has ordered Mahler to be extradited back to Germany, which had issued an international arrest warrant against him.

However, the judges announced that the extradition would be canceled if Germany did not return Mahler to her borders by June 16. Mahler told the court that he had sought refuge from the government of Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, but his request was rejected. He claimed that he was persecuted by the German government for his political activities.

Mahler was sentenced in 2009 to ten years in prison for denying the Holocaust, incitement to anti-Semitism and neo-Nazi activity. As a result of serious medical problems, the German court had accepted 81-year-old Mahler's request to be released from prison two years before the end of his sentence, but later ordered Mahler to report back to court in late 2016 to complete it.

Mahler took advantage of the fact that he was temporarily freed from prison to cross the border into Hungary and hide in the city of Sopron, where he was captured by the local police. He will be extradited back to Germany in the next few days, where he will stand trial again for his escape from prison.