A split has developed within the Dutch parliament over moves to pardon three Nazi war criminals currently serving life sentences in the Central Prison at Brenda. Minister of Justice Andries Van Agt said recently that he would be “not unwilling” to pardon the three. But today he asked Parliament not to raise the issue until a special Royal Commission makes its recommendations to Queen Julianna. The Queen alone has the prerogative to pardon convicts serving life terms. The prisoners are Franz Fischer, A. Ausderfuenten and M. Kotaella.
The three held top posts in the Nazi deportation bureaus in Amsterdam and The Hague which were responsible for the deportation of thousands of Dutch
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.