A spokesman for the West German Government here asserted today that application of the statute of limitations on prosecution of Nazi war criminals next May would not automatically end all prosecutions of such criminals in West Germany after that date.
Joseph J. Thomas, director of the West German Information Center in New York, made the statement in a letter to the New York Times. He made his statement in reply to a charge that if Martin Bormann, Hitler’s deputy, or Heinrich Mueller, Gestapo chief of Adolf Eichmann, reappeared in West Germany after May 8, they could not be prosecuted.
The West German spokesman asserted that even if the statute of limitations were to become effective May 8, “both men would be put on trial” because West Cerman law provides “that every statutory limitation can be interrupted by a simple action on the part of a judge, and the statutory period then begins anew.”
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