Archive/File: pub/people/p/priebke.erich/press/accepts-extradition-0895
Last-Modified: 1995/08/26

	 BUENOS AIRES (Reuter) - A former Nazi captain under house
arrest in Argentina Saturday said he will not  fight an
extradition request presented by Germany, which wants him for
his role in Italy's worst World War II atrocity.
	 Although the courts in the southern Andes ski resort of
Bariloche were closed for the weekend, ex-SS Capt Erich
Priebke's lawyers presented a document saying they will comply.
	 ``(We presented) a declaration signed by Priebke in which we
accept Germany's request,'' Priebke's attorney Pedro Bianchi
told the state-run Telam news agency in Bariloche, 1,000 miles
southwest of Buenos Aires.
	 An Argentine appeals court earlier this week outraged Italy,
Germany and the world's Jewish community when it rejected his
extradition to Italy, where he is wanted for his role in he
Ardeatine Caves massacre of 335 men in 1944.
	 Priebke, 81, led a quiet life under his own name in
Bariloche from 1948 until 15 months ago, when Italy demanded his
extradition soon after he admitted his involvement in the
massacre in a book and on U.S. television.
	 He said he acted on the orders of Gestapo chief Herbert
Kappler when he took part in the massacre, in which SS officers
shot 335 men and boys, 75 of them Jewish, in the caves near Rome
in reprisal for the killing of 33 German soldiers by partisans.
	 Priebke eluded Rome's extradition request by arguing that
his was a war crime, not a crime against humanity.
	 This time, however, his lawyers said they would not try to
fight extradition.
	 ``All that remains now is for them (Germany) to send the
plane tickets and the custodians,'' Bianchi told the private DyN
news agency.
	 Bianchi and co-defender Enrique Gschiwin told DyN they
trusted German law but considered Italy's legal system ``totally
corrupt.''
	 On Thursday Priebke was released from house arrest after a
court dismissed Italy's request but Friday he was detained again
after an angered Germany fired off its own extradition demand.
	 Judge Leonidas Moldes -- the same magistrate who had ordered
his release -- came to Priebke's house to inform him he was
under arrest again. The ex-SS officer was celebrating his
release with family and friends when Moldes rang the bell.
	 During his brief freedom, Priebke went out on the street and
proclaimed, ``Liberty is a great thing ... I'm going to walk the
streets of Bariloche and greet and embrace all those who support
me, because I have no reason to hide.''

Date: Sat, 26 Aug 95 12:20:21 PDT

	BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Former SS Capt. Erich Priebke,
whose extradition to Italy was blocked by a court, agreed in
writing Saturday to be extradited to Germany, his lawyer said.
	``We have full confidence in German justice and we want to
travel as soon as possible to settle the case once and for all,''
lawyer Pedro Bianchi told the official news agency Telam.
	Priebke was placed under house arrest late Friday after Germany
requested his extradition.
	The 82-year-old former Nazi had been released the day before
>from  14 months of house arrest in Bariloche, 1,100 miles southwest
of Buenos Aires, after an appeals court on Wednesday voted against
his extradition to Italy.
	Priebke's son, Jorge, said his father had been left speechless
by the new arrest order: ``It was as if a bucket of water had
fallen on him,'' he said.
	Priebke has admitted taking part in the 1944 massacre of 335
Italian civilians in the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome, and killing
one of them.
	He maintains he was simply obeying Adolf Hitler's orders to
execute 10 people for each of the 32 German soldiers killed in a
partisan bombing in Nazi-occupied Italy.
	The victims included at least 70 Jews, several priests and a
14-year-old boy, Italian officials have said.
	Italian and German courts want to try Priebke on charges of
murder.
	Although Argentine courts were closed for the weekend, ``we left
a writ signed by Priebke, agreeing with Germany's request'' for
extradition, said Bianchi.

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