Retrial Ordered in WWII Massacre Case

Italy’s highest appeals court ordered a retrial of war crimes suspect and former SS captain Erich Priebke for his involvement in a 1944 Nazi massacre of 335 men and boys. The court annulled an Aug. 1 verdict that convicted Priebke of involvement in the massacre near Nazi-occupied Rome but that also effectively freed him by acquitting him of acting with premeditation and cruelty. Prosecutors needed a conviction on those charges to get around Italy’s 30-year statute of limitation on murder. Priebke was rearrested after the verdict, with the Italian government citing Germany’s desire to have him extradited. He remains jailed in Rome.