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German court proceeds with Bikker case

Dutch war criminal to be tried


Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill

HAGEN, Germany - A German court has ruled that Herbertus Bikker (88) is fit to be tried for the 1944 murder of Dutch resistanceman Jan Houtman. In A Dutch tribunal in the late 1940s, had convicted Bikker, a former member of the SS, of killing Hout-man. Bikker then served as guard at the Erica concentration camp near Ommen.

The Hagen court had adjourned the case when Bikker became ill. The court cautioned that the health of an elderly suspect can change quickly but that he is considered able to follow the proceedings.

Bikker had escaped from the prison in Breda in 1952 and has been living in Germany since where he eventually obtained citizenship.