SLOVAK COURT CHANGES NIZNANSKY'S DEATH PENALTY TO LIFE SENTENCE

the Regional Court in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, changed the original death sentence handed down to alleged war criminal Ladislav Niznansky to a life sentence in order bring the verdict into line with the country’s laws. Niznansky, a German citizen since 1996, was represented by his defence counsel before the court.
Czechoslovak courts sentenced Niznansky in absentia in 1962 for assisting in the late 1944 and early 1945 massacres of civilians in the Slovak villages of Klak, Ostry Grun, Prochot, Ksinna and Lubina as commander of the Nazi unit Edelweiss.
He was tried for the same crimes in Germany, but the Munich court acquitted him in December 2005.