Archive/File: pub/people/p/priebke.erich/press/german-embassy-knew-0895
Last-Modified: 1995/08/30

	BERLIN (AP) -- The German Embassy in Argentina knew for years
that alleged Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke was living in the
country and kept his German passport valid so he could travel, a
newspaper reported Wednesday.
	Priebke, 82, a former Nazi SS officer, is sought by both Italy
and Germany to stand trial for his role in a World War II massacre
in Rome that claimed more than 300 civilian lives.
	The Berliner Zeitung daily quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman
in Bonn as saying that until a few years ago, Priebke was a German
citizen holding a German passport that bore his real name.
	German prosecutors investigated Priebke's wartime activities in
the 1960s but halted the proceedings in 1971, in part because his
whereabouts were unknown.
	In an Italian television interview broadcast Wednesday, Priebke
said he had traveled frequently outside Argentina since settling
there in 1948.
	Priebke told RAI-3 he was in Italy twice, as recently as 1980,
and had made numerous trips to Europe and eight trips to the United
States using his own name and a German passport.
	``No one ever questioned me,'' Priebke said.
	Three weeks ago, an Argentine appeals court overturned an order
to extradite him to Italy. Prosecutors said they would appeal, and
Germany reacted by saying it would move for his extradition.

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