Defendant in war crimes trial dies

London - A former police commander in Nazi-occupied Belarus who became the first person to stand trial in Britain for war crimes…

London - A former police commander in Nazi-occupied Belarus who became the first person to stand trial in Britain for war crimes has died in hospital of old age, yesterday. The trial of Szymon Serafinowicz (86), collapsed in January when the jury ruled he was not mentally fit to face a full hearing. He had been accused of being involved in the Nazi programme to wipe out the Jewish population of what was then Byelorussia in the second World War. - (Reuter)