The public prosecution department said on Friday it is to appeal against a decision by judges in Amsterdam to clear an antique shop owner of disseminating hatred by putting copies of Mein Kampf on sale.

Michiel van Eyck, who runs the Totalitarian Art Gallery in Amsterdam, had his copies seized and had to appear in court after the Jewish Netherlands Foundation lodged a complaint in October 2013. He was acquitted at a second hearing on Monday.

The sale of Mein Kampf is officially forbidden in the Netherlands and the public prosecution had sought a €1,000 fine.

Free speech

The appeal court said on Monday that sentencing Van Eyck would contravene the right to free speech. In addition the book, which has played a prominent role in history, is freely available on internet.

Van Eyck said he had sold Hitler’s memoir as an historical artefact alongside busts of other 20th-century leaders such as Lenin and Churchill. ‘I don’t just sell Mein Kampf, but Anne Frank’s diary too – anything that is of historical relevance.’

The ban on Mein Kampf in Germany was lifted at the start of this year. When a new edition went on sale on January 8 all 4,000 copies were snapped up within hours.