An Italian skinhead leader has been arrested after being accused of putting up posters calling for the freedom of former SS Capt. Erich Priebke, who was extradited to Italy from Argentina last month to face trial on war crimes charges.
Priebke, 82, who is being held in at a military prison near Rome, is accused of involvement in the 1944 massacre of 335 Romans – including 75 Jews, several Roman Catholic priests and three teen-agers – at the Ardeatine Caves south of Rome.
If convicted, Priebke faces life imprisonment for the part he played in what is regarded as the worst war crime committed on Italian soil.
A preliminary hearing on his case opened Dec. 7, but the final decision about whether to try him was delayed for procedural reasons.
The posters, put up by local skinheads across the city, featured a pictured of a Nazi soldier in a helmet, with the slogan “Freedom for Priebke.” “To you, today prisoner of miserable renegades, we renew the oath that forever has linked the hearts of those who know how to fight,” the posters read. “Our honor is called loyalty.”
Police arrested Maurizio Boccacci after accusing him of putting up the posters. They charged him with breaking laws against the revival of fascism in Italy.
Meanwhile, an 83-year-old former Italian resistance fighter now living in Buenos Aires may be a key witness for the prosecution of Priebke.
Valentino Marsili, vice president of the Argentine-Italian association “Unione e Benevolenza,” was identified by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra as “a material witness of the massacre who can prove Priebke was involved.”
In an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarin, Marsili refused to elaborate on his role in the prosecution, saying that he has received telephone threats.
Marsili told the paper he was at the massacre. “I was 200 yards away, disguised as a priest, and saw the Germans unload their prisoners and take them into the Ardeatine Caves,” he said. “They were pushing them inside five at the time, and then I heard shots.”
Marsili refused to say whether he saw Priebke at the site of the massacre.
“That is something I will tell prosecutor Antonino Intelisano if he calls me to testify in Rome,” he said.
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