Widespread criticism was reported today among members both of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s Christian Democratic party and the opposition Social Democrats of the rejection by the West German Ministry of Justice of a bill to extend the statute of limitations on crimes committed during the Nazi regime.
The rejected bill would have dated the time limit for prosecution in such cases from September 1949, when West German courts first began to function after the war, instead of May 1945, which makes the expiration date for prosecution of such Nazi crimes next May.
Fritz Schaeffer, Minister of Justice, declared in opposing the extension measure that such a bill would violate the equality principles of the West German Republic’s basic law and would involve possible prosecution ex post facto. He also said that provincial Ministers of Justice had instituted measures to extend the 15-year period of prosecution by ordering formal inquiries in cases of “founded suspicion,”
Supporters of the extension measure contended that if the May deadline stands, many criminals, whose connections with Nazi crimes is not now known, would escape punishment. They pointed out that war crimes trials scheduled in coming months might reveal new suspects and that, if that happened, West German authorities could not possibly have enough time to review all the material.
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