(RTTNews) - German prosecutors have charged a 90-year-old former member of Nazi SS unit with 58 counts of murder for killing Jewish forced laborers in Austria during World War ll, said officials on Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege that the suspect and other members of his unit massacred 58 Jewish forced laborers in the eastern Austrian village of Deutsch Schuetzen in March 1945.

They told a German state court that the man, along with other members of his SS unit, took 57 of the victims to a forest on March 29, 1945 and shot them from behind, while one more victim was killed during a forced march on the same day or the day after.

While the court said the accused was a "retiree from Duisburg," several media reports identified the suspect as former SS Sgt. Adolf Storms.
The court now has to decide whether to proceed with the trial of the suspect, who has two weeks to file evidence or appeal against the case proceedings.

Prosecutors launched an investigation into the case last year after an Austrian university student researching the massacre alerted them about the present location of the suspect. It is understood that the university student located him by simply looking up his name in a German telephone directory.

German prosecutors believe that former members of the Hitler Youth organization were also involved in the killing of the 58 laborers. Last December, they had sent an investigator to the site of the killings to gather evidence and interview former members of the Hitler Youth as witnesses.

According to officials, three former Hitler Youth members have already testified against the suspect in Austria, while a fourth one is expected to be interviewed later this week in Canada.

by RTT Staff Writer

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