ITALIAN Jews protested today outside the lawyer's office
at which a 93-year-old Nazi war criminal was starting work
following a court ruling that allows him to leave house arrest
every day.
About 100 people, some shouting "Murderer!", gathered
outside the Rome office where former SS Captain Erich Priebke,
jailed for life for the massacre of 335 men and boys at the
Ardeatine Caves near Rome during World War Two, was beginning
his first day at work.
"It's an absolute disgrace, people forget," Leone
Sonnino, an 80-year-old Jewish man, told said.
"People say 'It's enough now'. Enough for what? Nothing
should be enough, there can never be enough grief."
"The protest will last for as long as we have breath," said
another Jewish protester, Roberto Limentani.
Priebke arrived before the protestors on the back of a motor
scooter driven by his lawyer, Paolo Giachini.
A military court ruled last week that Priebke, who is serving
his sentence under house arrest for health reasons, can work
for Giachini, who campaigned for his freedom and in whose
Rome flat Priebke lives.
The lawyer says Priebke will use his knowledge of German,
Spanish, English and French to do translations and clerical
work at his office.
Priebke was extradited to Italy in 1995 from Argentina,
where he fled after the war and worked for decades as a schoolteacher.
"The law says that after a period in prison inmates
have the right to certain benefits, because detention here
in Italy isn't just punitive, it tries to re-educate those
who have been condemned," Mr Giachini said outside his
office.
But the military tribunal's ruling has been criticised by
Italian politicians and by Nazi hunters at the Simon Wiesenthal
Centre, who said it "insults the family and friends
of those murdered by Priebke and his cohorts".
The ruling lets Priebke go to the office "every day,
freely" and "go out to satisfy, at nearby places
and for the time strictly necessary, the indispensable necessities
of life" – meaning he can pop out for lunch.
The Ardeatine Cave killings were in reprisal for a partisan
attack on Germans and many of the victims were taken from
Rome's ancient Jewish ghetto. Priebke admitted he participated
but said he had obeyed orders on pain of death.
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