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Spain charges alleged ex-Nazis as accessories to crimes against humanity

MADRID - A Spanish judge on Thursday indicted three alleged ex-Nazi death camp guards who all lived for many years in the United States, charging them with being accessories to genocide and crimes against humanity.

Judge Ismael Moreno of the National Court issued international arrest warrants for Johann Leprich, Anton Tittjung and Josias Kumpf. The 18-page indictment says Kumpf apparently now lives in Austria and the other two are still in the United States...

... He said they were simple guards forced into service who "stood out in the rain, watched the snow come down. ... That's your Nazi war criminal. They hated it."

Leprich is from Macomb County's Clinton Township, near Detroit.

The judge acted in part under Spain's observance of the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows particularly heinous crimes such as genocide, torture or terrorism to be prosecuted in Spain even if they are alleged to have been committed elsewhere...
Read entire article at MSNBC