Alleged Nazi Released by German Court

An 86-year-old man charged with Nazi-era war crimes in Slovakia was released by a German court on Friday while his trial continues. The decision by the Munich court ruled that former Captain Ladislav Niznansky, who is charged with 164 counts of murder in massacres in three villages, was no longer under "urgent suspicion" after a key witness said he could no longer clearly remember what happened despite having testified against Niznansky in a separate trial in Czechoslovakia four decades ago. Niznansky, who went on trial last month, is accused of heading the Slovak section of a Nazi unit code-named Edelweiss, which hunted resistance fighters and Jews after the Germans crushed an uprising against Slovakia's Nazi puppet government. According to prosecutors, in 1945 Niznansky personally shot at least 20 people, and formed a shooting squad to kill 18 Jewish civilians discovered hiding in underground bunkers.