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The massacre took place in Distomo (picture) in central Greece on June 10, 1944.
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ROME (AFP)---An Italian court has upheld orders to confiscate Germany's assets in Italy to carry out a Greek court ruling to compensate the families of 218 victims of a Nazi massacre, the ANSA news agency said.
The decision by the appeals court in Florence opens the way for confiscating German assets -- except for diplomatic property -- in Italy to pay the Greek survivors some 50 million euros (65 million dollars), their lawyer Joachim Lau told ANSA late Tuesday.
The massacre took place in Distomo in central Greece on June 10, 1944.
After being attacked by resisters, German SS troops opened fire on civilians, setting the village on fire, killing livestock and massacring residents from two-month-old infants to the elderly.
The Greek victims' families, who had not succeeded in getting German assets seized in Greece, turned to a 1995 Italian law to take their compensation claim before Italian courts, which have recognised the primacy of individual rights over the sovereignty of the state in cases of crimes against humanity.
The Florence court rejected the appeal made by Germany of a 2006 lower court decision, which put in partial escrow a German state villa on Lake Como whose sale would have helped to compensate the Greek families.
The villa, however, is also used as a center for studying international law by Italy, which has consequently sided with Germany against the sale. The issue of the villa is expected to be decided by the courts in April.