SS officers sentenced for Italian massacres

Kyt · Jun 27, 2009

Nazi SS officers sentenced to life for Second World War massacre in Italy - Telegraph

Nine former members of the Nazi SS were sentenced to life in prison for a series of massacres during the Second World War by an Italian court, according to news reports.

The court also ordered Germany to pay damages to some of the families of the hundreds of victims, the ANSA news agency reported.

The nine suspects, aged between 84 and 90 were tried in absentia and found guilty of the murders of more than 350 civilians in the summer of 1944.

A tenth defendant was acquitted and another died during the trial, the agency said.

The victims, including many women and children, were rounded up by Nazi troops ostensibly on the hunt for partisans and shot in separate killings that occurred in the area around the Tuscan town of Fivizzano in August, 1944.

Germany will have to pay damages to some fifty families of the victims, ANSA said. The total amount will be fixed later, though the court ruled an initial €1.25 million (£1 million) should be paid immediately, the agency reported.

Italian law allows victims and their relatives to attach civil lawsuits to criminal cases to obtain damages. It is not the first time a court has ordered Germany to pay compensation for Nazi massacres and for the thousands of Italians sent to Nazi Germany as slave labourers during the war.

In some cases, judges have suggested that, if the government refuses to pay, German assets in Italy could be auctioned off.

The compensation suits have become a sensitive issue in Italian-German relations.

Germany has refused to pay, arguing that, under international law, claims by individuals cannot be used to pursue compensation from nations and that Germany has already paid reparations for Nazi crimes under international treaties with Italy.

German has also taken the matter to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.
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SS officers sentenced for Italian massacres

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