15 January 2006
Italy's prime minister Romano Prodi has welcomed the conviction of ten former Nazi soldiers for a massacre of 955 people in Italy during World War II. On Saturday, an Italian military court sentenced the former SS soldiers, now aged between 81 and 88, to life in prison in absentia for the killings in Marzabotto in 1944. "It was one of the most atrocious crimes of World War II, a true massacre," Prodi said, quoted by the ANSA news agency. "It is right that such crimes can still be judged even if it is clear that after so many years the guilty people have become untouchable," Prodi said.
The defendants were all tried in absentia and are believed to live in Germany. Germany amended its laws last year to allow extradition of its citizens to stand trial abroad within the EU. However, difficulties with the extradition process meant the convictions hold only "symbolic value", Prodi said. In all, 17 former Nazi officers were put on trial. The court later acquitted seven of them. The main officer accused, Walter Reder, also nicknamed "Butcher of Marzabotto", had already been sentenced to life in prison by a military court in Bologna in 1951 but was freed in 1985. The massacre happened in 1944 when soldiers of the 16th "SS Panzerdivision" entered the town of Marzabotto, near Bologna, and two neighboring villages, Grizzana and Monzuno, killing 955 people, including some 300 women and 40 children under the age of two, as well as five Catholic priests.
