Britain’s new Labor government today said it favors the release of Hitler’s former deputy Rudolf Hess on humanitarian grounds from Spandau jail in West Berlin. Hess, who will be 80 on April 26, has been the sole prisoner in Spandau jail since 1966. He was sentenced to life imprisonment as a war criminal at the 1946 Nuremburg trials. In order to be released, Hess must have the approval of the “Big Four,” the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. But the USSR has been opposed.
The British statement was made by Roy Hattersley, Foreign Office Minister of State, in a written parliamentary reply. He said it had been the view of successive British government that Hess should be released on humanitarian grounds. “There have, however, been no signs that the Soviet government are prepared to change their negative attitude on this question,” he said.
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