In a judgment in the Federal Court yesterday, Justice Bruce Lander said Dr Toben's conduct had been wilful and he had steadfastly refused to comply with the law.

"The courts have held, but his conduct shows he does not accept that the freedom of speech citizens of this country enjoy does not include the freedom to publish material calculated to offend, insult or humiliate or intimidate people because of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin," Justice Lander said. "It is conduct that amounts to criminal contempt."

Dr Toben had pleaded not guilty to 28 counts of contempt arising from allegations from former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Jeremy Jones.

Mr Jones first lodged a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission in 1996 and later applied to the Federal Court to uphold its ruling, which it did in 2002.

But in hearings last year, counsel for Mr Jones, Robin Margo SC, told the court Dr Toben had defied its orders for six years.

Mr Margo said the Adelaide Institute website was still publishing, in July 2008, `virulent anti-semitic material' including there were no death gas chambers at Auschwitz concentration camp and that the Holocaust was `the world's filthiest blood libel'.

He urged the court to fine Dr Toben, or impose a period of imprisonment if he could not pay.

After handing down his judgment, Justice Lander adjourned the case to take submissions on penalty.

The Federal Court ruling came after Dr Toben fled Britain in November last year when a German bid to have him extradited to face charges of Holocaust denial failed.

The 64-year-old had been arrested a month earlier at Heathrow Airport on a European warrant but a British court later ruled it invalid because it did not provide enough detail.

AAP