An Italian court has sentenced nine elderly Germans to life imprisonment for Nazi massacres of hundreds of people in the north of Italy in 1944.
The convicted men were part of a division that indiscriminately slaughtered civilians in an attempt to break the Italian resistance.
The massacres were carried out in the Modena region, parts of the Emilia Romagna region and near Arezzo in Tuscany.
The trial in Verona began in November 2010 after an investigation lasting five years. The accused were sentenced in absentia.
Judge Vincenzo Santoro said charges had been dropped against three other men, now deceased.
