(ANSA) - A former Nazi officer sentenced to life for taking part in Italy's world War War II atrocity has not been allowed to go on holiday, a Rome military judge said on Thursday.
Erik Priebke, 92, has been serving his sentence under house arrest in Rome, after being released from a military prison for health reasons. Military parole magistrate Fulvio Salvatore said he had simply allowed Priebke to move temporarily to a friend's residence near the northern Lake Maggiore but will continue to remain under house arrest.
Priebke was extradited from Argentina in November 1995, where he had lived openly since the end of the war, and put on trial for his part in the 1944 Ardeatine Caves massacre in Rome.
The former SS captain was one of those who rounded up 335 men and boys, and had them shot in reprisal for a partisan bomb that killed 33 German soldiers in downtown Rome.
He was sentenced to life by a military court in 1998 for his role in the massacre. "Priebke has behaved during the entire duration of of his house arrest in Rome. I saw no reason to deny him the right to move temporarily to another residence," Salvatore said.
However, the former Nazi officer's move to Besozzo, near Varese, has infuriated some of the residents and has drawn protests from the local representatives of the centre-left opposition. The opposition urged the locals to join them on Saturday for a protest vigil outside the house where Priebke is staying.
