War criminal Heinrich Boere on trial at last

Wednesday 28 October 2009

The trial of one of the Netherlands last wanted war criminals, SS member Heinrich Boere, was adjourned until next week, officials in Aachen, Germany said on Wednesday.

The delay will give prosecution department lawyers time to answer defence accusations that they are not objective, the Volkskrant reports.

Boere, 88, has admitted on film shooting dead three Dutch nationals in 1944 in revenge for attacks by the resistance on the German occupiers.

Born in Germany to a German mother and Dutch father, Boere was captured by the Americans after the war and send to a prison camp in Limburg. He escaped in 1949 and went to his mother's home in Maastricht where, according to Nos tv, he spend seven years in hiding. He was tried in his absence and sentenced to death and in 1954 fled to Germany where he lived ever since.

The Netherlands tried several times to have Boere extradited but Germany does not extradite its own nationals. New rules have now made his prosecution possible in Germany. A lower court had ruled Boere was too weak to stand trial but this was overturned on appeal.

He is charged with killing three men, Fritz Bichnese, a chemist and father of 12 children, bicycle seller Teun de Groot who helped Jews go into hiding, and member of the resistance Frans Kusters. The German public prosecutor is demanding three life sentences.

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© DutchNews.nl

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