Vienna, Austria ? British historian David Irving was charged Tuesday with violating an Austrian law that makes Holocaust denial in this formerly Nazi-ruled nation a crime.

Irving, a controversial Third Reich scholar who has claimed that Adolf Hitler knew nothing about the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews, is accused of giving two speeches in 1989 in which he denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers during World War II, prosecutor Otto Schneider said.

He was arrested Nov. 11 in the southern province of Styria on a warrant issued in 1989. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Irving in the past has faced allegations of spreading anti-Semitic and racist ideas.

The right-wing historian has said he does not deny Jews were killed by the Nazis, but challenges the number and manner of Jewish concentration camp deaths.