Verdict due in Nazi war crimes trial in Germany

A 91-year-old German man, accused of a Nazi war crime, is set to be sentenced by a court in Munich today. Former infantry commander Josef Scheungraber denies ordering the killing of 14 Italian civilians in a village in Tuscany in 1944.

Since World War Two, Scheungraber has led an unremarkable life in Bavaria as a respected member of the community. But, at the opening of his trial last September, it was claimed the retired shopkeeper was behind a Nazi atrocity in the village of Falzano. It is claimed his soldiers shot dead a 74-year-old woman and three men before forcing other civilians into a farmhouse and blowing it up. Scheungraber has already been sentenced in absentia by an Italian military tribunal to life imprisonment.

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tags: Germany, War crimes, World War II