‘Secret service not involved in Priebke body transfer’
(ANSA) – Rome, October 17 – The Italian government on Thursday denied secret service involvement in a decision to move the body of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke to a Rome military airport.
“The secret services were not involved,” said the premier’s office, denying press reports about the former SS officer, who died Friday aged 100 under Rome house arrest for his part in the 1944 reprisal killing of 335 Roman men and boys including 75 Jews.
Priebke’s body was moved to Pratica di Mare airport for public-order reasons after a funeral at the headquarters of an ultra-traditonalist breakaway Catholic group outside Rome was aborted Tuesday following clashes between residents and neo-Nazis.
Germany has said his burial is up to his family.
Priebke’s lawyer released parts of a so-called ‘video-testament’ Thursday in which Priebke reiterated he had been following orders and said the resistance fighters who killed 33 SS police in Rome the day before the massacre “knew” what the consequences would be.
Priebke, unrepentant to the last, called his testament “Woe to the Vanquished”.