War criminals tried by Allied tribunals may be tried again in German courts, according to a decision just handed down by the Federal Supreme Court. In effect, the ruling refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the occupation courts and held that crimes under the laws of the West German Republic must be handled by Bonn’s courts.
The Supreme Court ruled in the case of a 55-year-old merchant, H. Hinrichs, of Oldenburg who was released in 1953 from prison where he had been serving a life term handed down by a French war crimes tribunal. Hinrichs was ordered retried by an Oldenburg court.
The ruling is expected to have widespread effect since many war criminals who have served their sentences are now free and have used the argument that they may not be tried twice for the same crimes as an answer to threatened prosecution. Such arguments, for example, have been used in the case of concentration camp doctors Hans Eisele and Herta Oberhauser, both of whom were convicted by non-German courts but who are now the object of German prosecution.
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