He was given a six-month suspended sentence in absentia, but if he loses his appeal next month his sentence could be increased to two years. Haderer's book is the first to be banned in Greece for more than 20 years, and he is the first artist to fall prey of the European arrest warrant system since it was introduced in June 2002.

Austrian writers rallied to Haderer's defense at a press conference yesterday, charging that his case is critical to the freedom of international writers. It is unbelievable that a person can write a book in his home country and be condemned and threatened with imprisonment by another," said Nikki Conrad, a human rights expert who organised yesterday's press conference. "But he is not going to just sit back and accept this injustice. He is prepared to take this to the European court of human rights. When Gerhard first got the summons he thought it was a joke. But now he is starting to get a bit nervous."

The Austrian comedian Hubert Kramar, who is next week due to star in a new satirical play about Christ, turned up to the press conference dressed as Jesus. "We are supposed to be living in a democratic society. Greece is in Europe and the whole idea of the European Union is that everything is supposed to be more open. But what happened to Haderer is scaring artists like me," he said.

Haderer is no Johnny-come-lately to writing.

[He is] well known in Germany for his weekly illustrations in the news magazine Stern.

His book has sold 100,000 copies in Germany and been published in six countries besides Greece. You can buy the book through Amazon here. The German page of Amazon has a cover picture of the book.