The ANNOTICO Report
SS Commander, Erik Priebke supervised the execution by firing squad of 335 men and boys at the Ardeatine Caves near Rome, in 1944. Priebke fled to Argentina after the war and was not tracked down until 1994. In 1997 he was convicted in Italy and sentenced to LIFE IN PRISON.
A year later, Priebke's lawyers persuaded the courts to allow him to serve out his sentence under HOUSE ARREST in a Rome apartment!!!!!
Now, because of good behavior over the past seven years, the ruling magistrate has allowed Priebke to have a two-week vacation from house arrest, at a private Villa at Lago Maggiore, a lake resort in the Lombardy region.
Not only that, the holiday at the lake is ultimately being
paid for by the Italian taxpayer. since it is deemed necessary for
four police officers on 24-hour shifts to guard the prisoner,
to protect him from possible irate citizens.
This kind of so called Justice, causes people to take Justice into their own hands, and I would applaud it!
The Law is an ASS!!!
Italians are outraged over 2-week break by lake for man
behind massacre
By Stephen Weeke
Bureau chief
NBC News
Aug. 11, 2005
ROME - The Nazi war criminal responsible for Italy's most
notorious mass murder is currently enjoying a two-week vacation at a lake
resort in the north of the country -- and Italians are outraged.
Erik Priebke, 92, was the SS commander in Rome in the
spring of 1944 when Italian resistance fighters set off a bomb that killed
33 German soldiers. In a swift reprisal, the Nazi command ordered
the execution of 10 Italians for every dead German.
On March 24, 1944, at a natural quarry on the Appian
Way known as the Ardeatine Caves, Priebke supervised the execution by firing
squad of 335 men and boys. That massacre remains the most deeply felt and
symbolic wound of Italy's suffering at the hands of the Nazis in World
War II.
Priebke escaped to Argentina after the war and lived
quietly in the ski resort of Bariloche until he was tracked down by a U.S.
television crew in 1994. He was arrested and extradited to Italy for trial,
and in 1997 he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, at the age
of 85.
A year later, Priebke's lawyers persuaded the courts
to allow him to serve out his sentence under house arrest in a Rome apartment
bought for him by anonymous supporters. The courts agreed on the basis
of his advanced age, poor health and minimal flight risk.
Now, because of good behavior over the past seven years,
the ruling magistrate has allowed Priebke to have a two-week vacation from
house arrest. Since last Sunday he's been the guest of Dietrich Bickler,
a 65-year-sculptor who owns a villa on the Lago Maggiore, a lake resort
in the Lombardy region.
Upset locals
News of this vacation took a few days to spread, but
now the locals in the town of Cardana di Besozzo are very upset.
Giovanni Martina, a member of the local communist party
that is fueling the protest expressed his outrage to La Repubblica newspaper.
We are indignant. We can accept that they allowed him
house arrest in Rome. But not a lakeside vacation! That's an insult. This
is a land that produced many martyrs for the war of liberation. Let's not
forget that.
The head of the Italian Jewish community offered more
measured criticism, although he noted that Priebke has never expressed
remorse for the killings.
If, perhaps, he had simply said, I'm sorry for the many
innocents who died in those years;' or if he had at least tried to justify
himself by saying that he didn't have the power to do anything to save
them. Then things might have been different," Amos Luzzatto said.
"But not like this. That's why this 'reward-vacation'
comes across like just one more affront.
At government expense
The war criminal's vacation also comes at some expense
to the Italian government.
With four police officers on 24-hour shifts to guard
the prisoner, and now to protect him from possible irate citizens, the
holiday at the lake is ultimately being paid for by the Italian taxpayer.
Priebke's lawyer, Carlo Taormina, dismissed the uproar
as sterile polemics, but even the local representative of the ultra-rightwing
Northern League party was furious.
Im stunned by Priebke's presence in our town,"
Margo Reguzzoni said. "It's like a hallucination. I think he should be
in prison, not here. He's extremely unwanted here. He committed horrible
crimes. We can't forget what he's done.
Stephen Weeke is NBC's bureau chief in Rome.