AN ITALIAN appeals court judge will interview former SS captain Erich Priebke in jail today, judicial sources said yesterday. This will be the first step in deciding whether to extradite him to Germany for a new war crimes trial.
The interview will be Priebke's first face-to-face meeting with the judiciary since a military court last week ordered him freed without punishment for his involvement in Italy's worst wartime atrocity.
Faced with public outrage at the verdict, the Italian government moved quickly to rearrest the 83-year-old German on an extradition warrant from Germany, which wants to try him for murder.
The Italian military prosecutors and lawyers for civil plaintiffs also plan to appeal.
The justice ministry said yesterday that Germany had also requested the arrest of an- other former Nazi in Italy who testified at Priebke's trial that he too took part in the so- called Ardeatine Caves massacre.
Former SS major Karl Hass (84) is in hospital in Italy, where he fell from a hotel balcony and broke his pelvis while trying to avoid testifying at Priebke's trial.