Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009
Nazi hit man trial postponed for medical reasons
Comments (0) | 
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeThe trial of an 88-year-old man accused of murdering three civilians in wartime Holland as part of a Nazi hit squad was postponed Tuesday until next week on medical grounds.
The decision came on the third day of the trial after defense attorneys for Heinrich Boere argued their client could not hear the proceedings properly.
When questioned by presiding Judge Gerd Nohl, Boere - sitting in a wheelchair with a monitor on a finger of his right hand measuring his blood pressure and blood oxygen levels - indicated he had not understood when the charges against him were read in court last week, despite saying then that he had.
"Only, lifelong, lifelong," he muttered slowly, indicating he had only understood he faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
Nohl ruled that the trial be postponed until next week so that Boere could be fitted with hearing aids, prompting an angry reaction from the attorney representing the son of one of Boere's victims.
Detlef Hartmann charged the defense with engaging in "delay tactics," saying that Boere's hearing issues could have been worked out a year ago.
"This could have been taken care of in advance," said Hartmann, whose client Teun de Groot's father was among the victims in 1944. De Groot has joined the trial as a co-plaintiff as allowed under German law.
"Now we've lost another day."
Defense attorney Gordon Christansen rejected that the request for hearing aids was part of any sort of strategy.
"It is the defense's right to check the ability of our client to stand trial at any time," he told reporters after the court session.
The resident of Eschweiler, on the outskirts of Aachen, has been charged with the killings of de Groot's father, a bicycle-shop owner also named Teun, as well as a pharmacist and another civilian, while part of an SS death squad code named "Silbertanne," or "Silver Pine."
Boere admitted the three killings to Dutch authorities when he was in captivity after the war. He was sentenced to death in the Netherlands in 1949 - later commuted to life imprisonment - but Boere has managed to escape jail so far.
In 1983, a German court refused to extradite him to the Netherlands because he might have German citizenship as well as Dutch; at the time, Germany had no provision to extradite its nationals.
Another German court refused in 2007 to make Boere serve his Dutch sentence in a German prison because he had been absent from his trial and therefore unable to defend himself.
As is usual in Germany, he has entered no plea. His attorneys have declined to say how they would try and counter his confessions to the killings - both to Dutch authorities and in comments to the media - but they could argue he was just following orders.
The trial is now scheduled to resume Nov. 17.
What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
- Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
- Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
- Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
- Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
- Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
- Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
- Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
- Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.