Robert Jan Verbelen, a former SS general condemned to death in absontia by Belgium in 1947 for wartime crimes in that country, was found in nocent yesterday by a Vienna Jury court in charges of participating in terrorist acts and mass murders in Bolgium.
The Jurors said, in the decision, that Verbelen had acted in an “emergency” situation and had “only” fulfilled orders of his superiors. The State Attorney immediately announced he was appealing the verdict.
Verbelen, who served as a wartime deputy to Leon Degrelle, the former Belgian Rexist leader, during the German occupation, fled from Belgium and turned up in Austria in 1945, acquiring Austrian citizenship. In 1962, the Belgian Government asked his extradition. The Austrian Government rejected the request because of Verbelen’s Austrian citizenship. Later the Government withdrew that citizenship and Verbelen again disappeared, returning to Vienna in 1963 when he was arrested.
Under new Austrian legislation, the crimes for which he was tried in absentia are no longer indictable and he was therefore indicted on the new charges of which the Jury court today acquitted him.
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