A FORMER Nazi SS captain, Erich Priebke, yesterday went on, trial at a Rome military tribunal, on charges of multiple homicide for his part in the 1944 Nazi reprisal killing of 335 Italian civilians at the Fosse Ardeatine, near Rome.
Fifty two years after one of the worst civilian massacres of the second World War in Italy, Priebke, now 82, has finally been" brought to trial. Incompetence and lack of political will have meant that until he was discovered in Argentina two years ago by an ABC television crew, nothing had been known of Priebke's movements since his escape from a prisoner of war camp in Italy in 1948.
Following the discovery of his whereabouts, Priebke was finally extradited to Italy last autumn.
Priebke has always admitted his involvement in the massacre, on March 24th, 1944, even acknowledging that he personally killed at least two people. However, he has consistently argued that he was a middle ranking officer with no option but to follow the orders of the German commander in Rome, Col Herbert Kappler.
Priebke's major role in the massacre was a "bookkeeping" one. He was responsible for checking the list of those destined to be shot, ticking off the victims names as they were unloaded from military lorries before being bundled into the Ardeatine caves for execution.
Upright and military in bearing, wearing an elegant grey suit, Priebke looked more like a distinguished pensioner than a Nazi war criminal as he sat impassive and attentive throughout yesterday's first hearing. Even the chaotic conditions of a crowded and, at times, emotional courtroom, peopled by many of the victims' relatives, did not appear to disturb the defendant, who took occasional notes in an elegant leather bound diary.
Yesterday's opening hearing was inevitably sidetracked by technical questions, with Priebke's lawyer arguing that Jewish community groups and Roman local authorities had no right to file suits as civil plaintiffs. Nearly all those killed at the Fosse Ardeatine were Roman citizens, while 75 were Jewish.
Furthermore, lawyers for the victims' relatives argued that the hearings should be held in a larger courtroom, given the huge Italian and international media interest. The inadequate nature of the military tribunal resulted in overcrowded conditions yesterday with at least one woman fainting in the heat, while journalists found themselves following the proceedings on closed circuit television in a corridor adjacent to the courtroom.
The court president, Mr Agostino Quistelli, however, rejected both requests, allowing the civil suits to be filed and ruling that the trial will continue in the military tribunal's small courtroom. The trial resumes tomorrow and could last for up to two months.
While many of the victims relatives yesterday reiterated their desire "to see justice done" at least one person directly affected by the massacre, a 75 year old widow, Anna Pignotti, who lost her young husband, indicated that the pain of that far off trauma was still vividly alive for her. She told The Irish Times: "Even if I live to be 200 years old I can never forgive him."