A new trial for Pieter Menten, the 80-year-old Dutch millionaire charged with war crimes committed in eastern Galicia in 1941, will start Sept. 25 in a Rotterdam District Court. Menten was originally sentenced to 15 years imprisonment on these charges by an Amsterdam District Court in December 1977. He appealed and the sentence was quashed by the Dutch Supreme Court on formal grounds in May 1978 and it ordered a new trial by The Hague District Court.
Last December, The Hague District Court ruled that The Hague Public Prosecutor was not authorized to prosecute Menten because of an alleged promise by the Minister of Justice in October 1952 that Menten could no longer be prosecuted. The Public Prosecutor appealed, and the Supreme Court ordered on May 22 a new trial by the Rotterdam District Court. Menten is under house arrest in Blaricum, east of Amsterdam.
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