On June 27, 2009, a military court
in Rome sentenced nine former SS men, aged
84-90, in absentia to life imprisonment for
the massacre of more than 350 civilians in Tuscany in 1944. The men’s advanced
ages makes them unlikely to serve their time,
as Italy has not enforced such sentences
in cases of ageing Nazi criminals. The president
of the Tuscany region, Claudio Martini, said
the trial was not about revenge, but rather
justice and historical accuracy. The 1994
discovery of a file of 695 uninvestigated
Nazi war crimes opened the case. There were
originally 11 men on trial but one died and
another was absolved. The Roman court also
ordered Germany to pay a total of 1.25 million
euros to the towns where the massacres took
place and to about 50 relatives of the victims.