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Germany vs Italy in World Court over WWII claims

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-24 21:04

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Germany has filed a suit at the World Court in The Hague to block Italian courts from awarding compensation to victims of Nazi war crimes. 

French gendarmes looks for clues next to Muslim graves desecrated with Nazi inscriptions and swastikas in Notre Dame de Lorette cemetery in Ablain Saint Nazaire, northern France, December 8, 2008. Germany has filed a suit at the World Court in The Hague to block Italian courts from awarding compensation to victims of Nazi war crimes. [Agencies]

Germany says the Italian courts have no jurisdiction in cases against Germany as a sovereign state.

It said that in 2004 an Italian court awarded reparations to a person who was deported to Nazi Germany to perform slave labor in the armaments industry.

That decision cleared the way for more claims in the Italian courts, and Germany fears hundreds of additional cases may be filed, including some by Greek nationals seeking the intervention of Italian courts.

Germany asked the U.N.'s highest court Tuesday to rule that such decisions by Italian courts are invalid and unenforceable.