An Italian court sentenced nine Germans to life in prison on Wednesday for participating in a World War II massacre in which around 400 civilians were killed in northern Italy.

The court in Verona found the former members of the "Hermann Göring" division guilty of killing hundreds of civilians while attempting to break the Italian Resistance in 1944. Many of the killings took place in the Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna regions, with some 140 murdered in the Modena region alone.

Wilhelm Karl Stark, 90, was a sergeant at the time, and received a life sentence along with 93-year-old Ferdinand Osterhaus, a second lieutenant, and 91-year old Helmut Odenwald, then a captain.

Herbert Wilke, 92, Erich Koeppe, 91 and Hans Georg Karl Winkler and Karl Friedrich Mess - both over 80 - were also handed life sentences.

The convicted men were also ordered to pay compensation.

Relatives of those killed, along with local mayors, were present at the sentencing.

"Finally there has been justice for the victims and their relatives and a bloody page of history can be closed," plaintiff Demos Malavasi told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Judge Vincenzo Santoro dropped charges against three other men who died before sentencing.

Author: Sarah Harman (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Nancy Isenson