Former Ss Officers Sentenced In Italy

An Italian military court handed out jail sentences to two former German SS officers on Tuesday for their part in a massacre of civilians outside Rome in 1944.

A year after another military tribunal set him free, setting off a storm of protest across Italy, Erich Priebke, 83, a former SS captain extradited from Argentina in 1995, was given a 15-year sentence, which was reduced to five years because of mitigating circumstances, including the fact he was acting under orders.

Priebke’s lawyer said Tuesday that his client, now under house arrest at a Franciscan monastery outside Rome, has only six months left to serve.

Karl Hass, an 84-year-old former SS major, was given a 10-year sentence, which was reduced to eight months. Since he has spent that much time under arrest before and during the trial, Hass was due to be set free immediately.