Israel
has asked Berlin to re-examine the case of a Nazi war criminal
who fled from a Dutch jail to Germany in 1952, an Israeli
Justice Ministry Spokesman confirmed Thursday.
Born in Holland, the 82-year-old served in the ranks of the SS during World War
II and after the war was tried in the Netherlands and sentenced
to death for the murder of 11 civilians.
His sentence was later commuted
to life imprisonment. In 1952 he escaped from a Dutch jail
and fled to Germany, where he currently lives as a free
man.
In a press statement Thursday,
the Simon Wiesenthal Centre welcomed the move by Israeli
Justice Minister Yakov Ne'eman in asking his German counterpart
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger to re-examine the case.
The Centre's chief Nazi-hunter,
Israel director Efraim Zuroff called upon the Bavarian
judicial authorities to review the case and refrain from
granting the man judicial protection on the grounds that
he had not been an officer.
'As clearly demonstrated by the
recent conviction in Aachen of Dutch SS-executioner Heinrich
Boere and the indictments of Sobibor death camp guard Ivan
Demjanjuk in Munich and Belzec death camp guard Samuel
Kunz in Dortmund, German prosecutors no longer consider
'superior orders' a legitimate defence in Holocaust crimes,'
Zuroff said.
It was high time that the 82-year-old
was held accountable for his role in the murder of innocent
civilians, he said, adding that the man had escaped an
extradition to the Netherlands and punishment in Germany
due to formal legal reasons.
The man is listed at number five
on the Wiesenthal Centre's list of Nazi war criminals still
at large.
In the past, the German government
had reviewed his case and found that the killings constituted
manslaughter. His crimes therefore fell under the statue
of limitations, it was found.
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