In 1998, Töben was arrested and imprisoned for nine months in Mannheim Prison for breaching Germany's Holocaust Law (§ 130 public incitement) prohibiting anyone from defaming the dead.
[14] From 1980 to 1985, Töben worked as a temporary employee for the Victorian Department of Education and Training until his dismissal for incompetence and disobedience on 4 January 1985.
On appeal (in Toben v Jones (2003) 129 FCR 515), the Court affirmed the application of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 against the statements on Töben's website.
[40][41][42] In 2009, Jeremy Jones, the then President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, brought a contempt of court action against Töben arising from Federal Court orders of 2002 requiring Töben to remove material from his Adelaide Institute website that vilifies Jewish people, and to refrain from publishing further similar material.
[43] Though Töben unreservedly apologised for his breaches of court orders and said he would not withdraw his apology as he had in the past,[44] he was sentenced to 3 months in prison.
He appealed against the sentence, but on 13 August 2009 the Full Court of the Federal Court rejected his appeal, and he started his 3-month jail sentence, one week in maximum security-punishment block – first at Yatala Labour Prison, and later at Cadell Training Centre, a low security prison farm.
[8][46][51] In 2008, the German federal authorities attempted unsuccessfully to extradite Töben from the United Kingdom under a European arrest warrant for allegedly publishing "antisemitic and/or revisionist" material on his website, which he writes from his home in Australia, and is a crime that does not exist in Britain.
The European Arrest Warrant had three boxes ticked: racism, xenophobia and cybercrime, which did not fulfill British legal requirements and so the EAW was judged to be deficient.
The arrest warrant was dismissed by Westminster Magistrates' Court on 29 October 2008, with the judge stating that the details it contained were "sparse".
Strict conditions were set, including limitations on Töben's communication and travel and he was able to raise the £100,000 surety required – 3 individuals offered to post bail, but an Executive Order released him from prison.
[57] The case caused some controversy in the United Kingdom, with the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne expressing concerns that the extradition would amount to an infringement on the freedom of speech.
[58] Also, British historian Geoffrey Alderman criticised Töben's arrest and the tendency "to enforce particular interpretations of history under the guise of 'combating racism and xenophobia'".