Ex-SS man, 88, guilty of wartime deaths

An 88-year-old man was convicted of murder today for the killing of Dutch civilians during the Second World War as part of a Nazi SS hit squad.

The state court in Aachen, Germany, sentenced Heinrich Boere to life in prison on three counts of murder for killing a bicycle-shop owner, a pharmacist and another civilian.

Boere, the son of a Dutch man and a German woman, admitted the killings during his trial, which started in October, but insisted he was just following orders.

The prosecution argued that he was a willing member of the fanatical SS, which he joined shortly after the Nazis overran his home town of Maastricht and the rest of the Netherlands in 1940.

It was not immediately clear whether he would appeal.