ROME - "The Last Nazi Trial, Act 2" got under way in Rome yesterday when for the second time in a year the former Nazi SS captain, Mr Erich Priebke (83), went on trial before a military tribunal, writes Paddy Agnew. Mr Priebke faces charges of "multiple homicide" for his part in the March 1944 reprisal killings in which 335 Italian civilians were massacred by Nazi forces at the Fosse Ardeatine, near Rome.
The first Priebke trial ended in a howl of protest last August when military tribunal judges found him guilty of involvement in Italy's worst wartime civilian massacre but ruled that he must be released under a statute of limitations. Angry protesters, including relatives of the victims of the Ardeatine massacre and ... members of Rome's Jewish community, stormed the courthouse, making it impossible for Mr Priebke to leave.
That evening, Italian Justice Minister, Mr Giovanni Maria Flick, ordered Priebke's rearrest, ostensibly because Germany had issued an extradition request for him. That extradition request was not granted but, in the meantime, an appeals court threw out the original decision and ordered a retrial.
Yesterday's opening session was concerned primarily with deciding whether Mr Priebke's case can be heard along with that of Mr Karl Haas, a former 55 major, who incriminated himself while giving evidence during the first Priebke trial.
Both former Nazi officers admit they were involved in the Ardeatine massacre, but argue they were acting on military orders and would have been shot had they dared disobey. The court ruled that the two can be jointly tried and then adjourned till Thursday.
Present in the high security courtroom of Rome's Rebibbia Prison yesterday was Mr Shimon Samuels, of the Simon Weisenthal centre in Paris, who compared the trial to that of Klaus Barbie, the head of the Lyon Gestapo sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987.
"This is the Italian Barbie trial . . . There are many aspects to this new trial which give a second chance to justice," he said.
"We want satisfaction for the families of the victims who have been waiting for 50 years in total frustration for justice."