Nazi SS chief Engel, 'Butcher of Genoa', dies aged 97

Friedrich Engel, a former Nazi SS officer known as the "Butcher of Genoa", has died aged 97.

His wife has confirmed that he died 10 days ago, and he was buried in a private ceremony in Hamburg last week, the city's prosecutor's office said.

Engel became known as the "Butcher" after a court in Hamburg convicted him of 59 counts of murder in 2002. He received a seven-year suspended jail sentence.

The court ruled he had ordered the execution of Italian naval commandos on a mountain pass outside Genoa, in northern Italy, on 19 May 1944. Engel, who was the head of the SS security service in the city, insisted that although he observed the event he did not supervise the executions. He admitted that his unit was responsible for selecting the victims from Genoa's Marassi jail, but he blamed Nazi naval officers for the shootings, which were a reprisal for a partisan attack on a cinema that killed five German soldiers.

In 2004, the federal appeals court quashed the conviction. The court maintained that he was legally responsible for the massacre, but questioned whether there was enough evidence to secure a murder conviction. Engel, who was then aged 95, was told he would not face a retrial because of his advanced age.

After the war, he worked as a timber salesman, travelling the world until his retirement in the 1970s. He did not serve any time in prison, though authorities investigated him in 1969 for his role in Nazi executions in Italy. The case was dropped the same year for reasons that have remained a mystery after files connected to the investigation were lost.

In 1999, an Italian military court convicted Engel in absentia and sentenced him to life for war crimes connected to 246 deaths.