Alleged Nazi war criminal dies, ending case against him

A 99-year-old who was being investigated on suspicion of complicity in murder as a former Nazi camp guard has died, ending the case against him, German prosecutors said Tuesday.

The man had allegedly worked at the Ravensbrueck concentration camp between 1943 and 1945 and was suspected of being an accessory to murder, the prosecutors in the town of Coburg said.

"As the accused has now died, the investigation is closed," they said, adding that it had not been possible to determine the exact number of deaths he may have been linked to.

The investigation was relatively advanced and the accused was capable of standing trial, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The man was close to being charged and a trial could have taken place next year, it said.

Germany has been scrambling to bring former Nazi war criminals to justice since a landmark ruling in 2011 that paved the way for several trials.

One former guard, John Demjanjuk, was convicted on the basis that he served as part of Hitler's killing machine, even though there was no proof he had directly killed anyone.

Since then, several former concentration camp workers have been found guilty of being accessories to murder on the same basis.

In December, a 97-year-old former Nazi camp secretary was found guilty of complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people at the Stutthof camp in occupied Poland.

She was given a two-year suspended sentence, which she is appealing.

Also last year, 101-year-old former Nazi camp guard Josef Schuetz was sentenced to five years in jail for being an accessory to murder in at least 3,500 cases.

Schuetz had worked as a prison guard at the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, between 1942 and 1945.

However, with time running out, several cases have been abandoned in recent years after the accused died or were physically unable to stand trial.