24 Mar 2010

Former Nazi convicted of Dutch murders

7:08 am on 24 March 2010

A German court has sentenced a former member of the Nazi SS to life in prison for the murder of three Dutch civilians in 1944.

Heinrich Boere, 88, had told the court in Aachen that he killed a bicycle shop owner, a pharmacist and a member of the resistance as part of a death squad during World War II.

But he said he was following orders and would have been shot for not doing so, the BBC reports.

Prosecutors said Boere was a willing member of the SS, which he joined after the Netherlands was invaded in 1940.

Boere's lawyer has said he will appeal.