The former prime minister of the federal state of Baden-Wuertemberg, Hans Filbinger, may be tried for war crimes, based on information obtained from the United Nations war crimes files, which were opened in New York last year.
Filbinger is one of approximately 4,000 West Germans whose names were discovered in the files and passed on to the Ludwigsburg-based Federal Office for the Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals in December. The Ludwigsburg office sent the Filbinger file to the state prosecutor in Stuttgart, who must decide whether to open a formal investigation.
Filbinger is accused of participating in massacres in Scandinavia during the closing months of World War II, when he was a military judge with the German occupation forces. He has flatly denied the allegations, declaring he could not be charged on legal or moral grounds.
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