In what is widely expected to be one of Germany's last Nazi war crimes trials, the court in Munich found 91-year-old Josef Scheungraber guilty of the massacre of the residents of 14 villagers.

It found that on June 26, 1944, the then-Nazi officer ordered his troops to shoot three men and an elderly woman in the street before herding a further 11 people into a farmhouse, which they subsequently blew up.

Only one of the 11 survived. Then just 15 years old, Gino Massetti is now an old man himself. But age did not prevent him from appearing in front of the Bavarian court to give his account of what happened in the village of Falzano di Cortona 65 years ago.

An act of retaliation

Scheungraber was commander of the mountain infantry battalion 818, which was ordered to secure German withdrawal from central Italy. When an attack by a group of partisans left two German soldiers dead, Scheungraber is said to have ordered a revenge attack the very same day.

Scheungraber has always denied ordering the killings, insisting instead that he handed the civilians over to the military police but "never heard what happened to them."

For his part, he went on to live the long life of a free man in the Bavarian town of Ottobrunn, serving on the town council, running a furniture shop and attending meetings of World War II veterans.

Although he was charged with 14 counts of murder and one of attempted murder, a lack of evidence meant the former Nazi officer was ultimately only convicted for the killing of 10 people.

War crimes justice

Several people from the Italian village of Falzano di Cortona, including descendents of those who were murdered, travelled to Munich to protest outside of the courthouse.

The village mayor, Andrea Vignini, said they had been waiting for truth and justice for 65 years.

"What we are asking for is to be able to believe in justice again and for war crimes to be prosecuted everywhere they are committed," he said.

An Italian court in La Spezia had already sentenced Scheungraber in absentia to life imprisonment in 2006, but he avoided having to serve the sentence as Germany does not operate a policy of forced extradition.

tkw/AFP/dpa/AP

Editor: Chuck Penfold