Josef Scheungraber, a former commander of a German mountain infantry battalion, is accused of ordering the killing of 14 civilians in the Tuscan village of Falzano near Cortona on June 26, 1944, in retaliation for an attack by Italian partisans that left two German soldiers dead.
Already sentenced in absentia by an Italian court to life imprisonment, Scheungraber’s trial comes at the end of a long legal odyssey that has provoked outrage among victims’ groups. The accused has lived for decades as a free man in Ottobrunn outside Munich, where he has served on the town council, run a furniture shop and regularly attended marches with fellow wartime veterans.
He was sentenced in September 2006 to life imprisonment by an Italian military tribunal in La Spezia.
But Germany as a rule does not extradite its citizens without their consent and has not received a formal request from Italy to jail him in his homeland. Scheungraber denies the charges.
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© 2008 Associated Newspapers Ltd
September 15, 2008
GERMANY: 90-Year Old on trial in 'last Nazi war crimes case'
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LONDON, England (Daily Mail), September 15, 2008:
By Allan Hall
What is expected to be Germany’s last Nazi war crimes trial started today in Munich where a 90-year-old man stands accused of a massacre in Italy 64 years ago.
Josef Scheungraber, a former commander of a German mountain infantry battalion, is accused of ordering the killing of 14 civilians in the Tuscan village of Falzano near Cortona on June 26, 1944, in retaliation for an attack by Italian partisans that left two German soldiers dead.
Already sentenced in absentia by an Italian court to life imprisonment, Scheungraber’s trial comes at the end of a long legal odyssey that has provoked outrage among victims’ groups. The accused has lived for decades as a free man in Ottobrunn outside Munich, where he has served on the town council, run a furniture shop and regularly attended marches with fellow wartime veterans.
He was sentenced in September 2006 to life imprisonment by an Italian military tribunal in La Spezia.
But Germany as a rule does not extradite its citizens without their consent and has not received a formal request from Italy to jail him in his homeland. Scheungraber denies the charges.
Read more
© 2008 Associated Newspapers Ltd
Josef Scheungraber, a former commander of a German mountain infantry battalion, is accused of ordering the killing of 14 civilians in the Tuscan village of Falzano near Cortona on June 26, 1944, in retaliation for an attack by Italian partisans that left two German soldiers dead.
Already sentenced in absentia by an Italian court to life imprisonment, Scheungraber’s trial comes at the end of a long legal odyssey that has provoked outrage among victims’ groups. The accused has lived for decades as a free man in Ottobrunn outside Munich, where he has served on the town council, run a furniture shop and regularly attended marches with fellow wartime veterans.
He was sentenced in September 2006 to life imprisonment by an Italian military tribunal in La Spezia.
But Germany as a rule does not extradite its citizens without their consent and has not received a formal request from Italy to jail him in his homeland. Scheungraber denies the charges.
Read more
© 2008 Associated Newspapers Ltd
