Germany: Jail sentence for 96-year-old ‘Bookkeeper of Auschwitz’ upheld

Germany: Jail sentence for 96-year-old 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' upheld

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has upheld a court ruling that a 96-year-old man is fit to serve a four-year jail sentence for his role in the murder of 300,000 people at Auschwitz.

Oskar Gröning, known as the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, was an accountant at the death camp, where he sorted and counted money stolen from inmates before sending it on to Berlin.

He was found guilty in 2015 of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people at the concentration camp during the Second World War.

Last November, a regional court in Celle, Lower Saxony ruled he was “fit to serve out the term despite his advanced age”. The ruling has been upheld by Germany’s highest court, leaving no further route for appeal.

Mr Gröning’s lawyers had argued that imprisonment at such an advanced age would violate his right to life.

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