Munich court releases alleged World War II criminal

A court in the German city of Munich has ordered the immediate release of an alleged war criminal from custody because of doubts about the veracity of evidence presented by prosecutors. A former commander of a Slovak unit of the Nazi regiment "Edelweiss", 86-year-old Ladislav Niznansky is standing trial for murder. In January and February 1945, at least 164 people were killed by the "Edelweiss" anti-partisan fighters in three massacres in Slovakia. But the main prosecution witness withdrew his ealier accusation that Niznansky had killed 20 civilians himself, and an expert later told the court that the 79-year-old witness had serious gaps in his memory of what really happened, and that he would "fill those gaps with more or less plausible stories".