Former German officer found guilty of Italian wartime deaths

A 90-year-old former German army officer was today convicted of ordering the reprisal killings of 10 Italian civilians who were herded into a barn that was blown up.

The Munich state court convicted Second World War veteran Josef Scheungraber on 10 counts of murder and one of attempted murder, and sentenced him to life in prison.

His lawyer said he would appeal.

Scheungraber was a 25-year-old Wehrmacht lieutenant during the June 1944 killings in Falzano di Cortona, near the Tuscan town of Arezzo.

The court ruled that, after partisans had killed two German soldiers, Scheungraber ordered 11 civilians to be herded into a barn that was then destroyed. One teenage boy survived the blast.