Report: German Prosecutors Seek 7-Year Prison Term for Former Nazi Soldier Who Denied Holocaust on TV
German prosecutors have filed charges against a former Nazi soldier on Wednesday for denying the Holocaust and making disparaging remarks about Nazi victims on TV, The Local reports.
While the prosecutors did not name the accused, he is believed to be the 96-year-old former Nazi soldier Karl Münter.
As Fox News notes, Münter was part of the “Hitler Youth” SS division in World War II and took part in the killing of 86 people in a northern French village.
Münter would later be convicted but then pardoned for his role in the killings.
In an interview with German channel ARD last November, Münter said that the victims in the French village only had themselves to blame for their deaths, according to The Local.
He went on to dispute the fact that the Holocaust killed over 6 million Jews.
“The accused did not dispute giving the information to journalists but he said he did not know that the interview was recorded and would be later broadcast,” the prosecutors said in a statement.
“He also did not view his statements as incitement and therefore thought he would not be liable to prosecution.”
As a result, Münter has been charged for incitement and disparaging the memory of Nazi victims.
He could receive 5 years in prison for incitement and an additional 2 years for disparaging the memory of Nazi victims.
During the night of April 1, 1944, a train carrying around 50 Nazi soldiers derailed after being hit by an explosion.
The explosion was an act by the local resistance, The Local reports.
In an act of revenge, a 21-year-old Münter and as well as other troops killed 86 people in the nearby village of Ascq.
The youngest victim on the massacre was just 15-years-old.
Münter was sentenced to death by a French military tribunal in 1949 for his role in the massacre, but was later pardoned in 1955 as an effort to restore French and German relations.
Since then, prosecutors have been looking for a reason to convict the former Nazi soldier, but have been prevented from doing so due to double jeopardy.
The recent statements, however, could give the prosecutors just what then need to finally convict the 96-year-old war criminal.
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