BERLIN: German judicial authorities yesterday officially said for the first time that Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim, known as “Doctor Death”, had died in Egypt in 1992 as reported.
A regional court in the southwestern town of Baden-Baden said it was abandoning an investigation because there was “no doubt” the body found in Cairo was that of Heim, who had changed his identity and converted to Islam.
“The criminal case against Dr Aribert Heim on suspicion of multiple murders has been abandoned because of the death of the accused,” the court said in a written statement. Heim, one of the world’s most wanted war criminals, became known as “Doctor Death” and the “Butcher of Mauthausen” after performing medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners.
Besides Mauthausen in Austria, he also served at the Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald camps in Germany.
In February 2009, German public television channel ZDF and the New York Times said that Heim had died of bowel cancer in 1992 at the age of 78, citing his son and acquaintances in Cairo.
But his death was never confirmed.
AFP
