A former Nazi guard arrived in Italy today after being extradited from Canada to serve a life sentence for war crimes committed during World War Two.
Michael Seifert, who had lived in Canada since 1951, landed at Rome's Ciampino airport before dawn. Italian TV footage showed the 83-year old, wearing a baseball cap, walking slowly with the help of a cane as local police escorted him out of the airport.
An Italian military tribunal convicted Seifert in absentia in 2000 for torturing and murdering at least 17 people while serving as a guard at a prison camp in the northern city of Bolzano between December 1944 and April 1945.
The tribunal said Seifert had tortured his victims with fire, broken bottles, clubs and ice-cold water. It said Seifert in one instance had raped a pregnant woman detained in an isolation cell before killing her, while in a separate episode he had left a 15-year old Jewish prisoner to die of hunger.
Seifert has acknowledged being a guard at the prison, which held Jews and political prisoners awaiting transfer to German concentration camps, but denied that he had killed anyone.
Dubbed by Italian media the "Executioner of Bolzano", Seifert was turned over to Italian authorities in Toronto yesterday.
Seifert may end up serving the sentence under house arrest because of his age.
He was born in 1924 in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, and began work as a guard in the Nazi SD security service after the German occupation. He was a member of the SS while serving at the Bolzano camp, Italian court documents said.
He moved to Canada after the war, claiming to be from Estonia, and found employment as a mill worker in Vancouver, where he raised a family and lived until he was arrested at Italy's request in 2002.
Seifert fought his extradition in Canadian courts, but the Supreme Court of Canada refused last month to hear his appeal. His lawyers had argued he had been convicted unfairly in Italy and that Canadian officials were biased against him in allowing the extradition.
The Canadian Jewish Congress welcomed news of the extradition on Friday, saying it showed Canada was not a safe hiding place for people wanted for war crimes. The group has estimated that 1,000 to 3,000 people with Nazi pasts were able to get into Canada illegally between 1947 and 1956.