This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24544380
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Nazi criminal funeral halted due to protests | Nazi criminal funeral halted due to protests |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The funeral in Italy of convicted Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke has been called off after protesters surrounded his hearse. | |
| More than 500 people demonstrated at the Catholic service in Albano Laziale, shouting "murderer" and "executioner" and clashing with Nazi sympathisers. | |
| The former German SS officer was convicted in 1998 and jailed for life - he had been under house arrest in Rome. | The former German SS officer was convicted in 1998 and jailed for life - he had been under house arrest in Rome. |
| He died last week, aged 100, and had never apologised for his actions. | He died last week, aged 100, and had never apologised for his actions. |
| Priebke was one of the SS officers present during the killing of men and boys at Rome's Ardeatine Caves in 1944, in a reprisal attack ordered by Adolf Hitler for the killing of 33 German soldiers in Rome by resistance fighters. | |
| Since his death, there has been fierce debate over what to do with his remains. | |
| The Vatican issued an unprecedented ban on holding the funeral in any Catholic church in Rome. | |
| Argentina, where Preibke lived for nearly 50 years before being extradited to Italy, has refused to take the body. | |
| But the Society of St Pius X - a Catholic splinter group often accused of having far-right and anti-Semitic leanings - offered to hold the ceremony. | |
| Don Floriano Abrahamowicz, a St Pius X priest, told Italy's Radio 24 that "Priebke was a friend of mine, a Christian, a faithful soldier". | |
| 'Take him to the landfill' | |
| According to Italian media, the service had already begun when protesters broke into the compound. | |
| On the way to the funeral, angry demonstrators gathered to jeer at and hit the hearse. | |
| "Take him to the landfill!" one man shouted, according to the French news agency AFP. | |
| Priebke's lawyer, Paolo Giachini, told the Associated Press that the authorities "did not allow people to enter who wanted to come in". | |
| After World War II, Priebke lived in the Argentine Andean resort of Bariloche, before his identity was unveiled in 1994. | |
| He was then extradited to Italy and jailed for life in 1998, but because of his age and poor health he was allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest in Rome. |