By Silvia Aloisi
ROME (Reuters) - A former Nazi guard extradited from Canadaarrived in Italy on Saturday to serve a life sentence for warcrimes committed there during World War Two.
Michael Seifert, who had lived in Canada since 1951, landedat Rome's Ciampino airport before dawn on Saturday.
Italian TV footage showed the 83-year-old, wearing abaseball cap and walking slowly with the help of a cane aslocal police escorted him out of the airport.
An Italian military tribunal convicted Seifert in absentiain 2000 for torturing and murdering at least 18 people whileserving as a guard at a prison camp in the northern city ofBolzano between December 1944 and April 1945.
A copy of the sentence, posted on the Web site of Italy'sDefence Ministry, said Seifert -- known at the camp as "Misha"-- had tortured his victims with fire, broken bottles, clubsand ice-cold water.
It said Seifert in one instance raped a pregnant womandetained in an isolation cell before killing her. In a separateepisode, he left a 15-year-old Jewish prisoner to die ofhunger.
Seifert has acknowledged being a guard at the prison, whichheld Jews and political prisoners awaiting transfer to Germanconcentration camps, but denied he had killed anyone.
Dubbed by Italian media the "Executioner of Bolzano",Seifert was turned over to Italian authorities in Toronto onFriday. After arriving in Rome, he was temporarily taken to amilitary prison in southern Italy.
The top military prosecutor in charge of the trial,Bartolomeo Costantini, said on Saturday Seifert was fit enoughto go to jail but he would not oppose allowing him to serve thesentence under house arrest because of his age.
"He is a man who must pay for his crimes, but he will alsobe 84 in a few days," Costantini said, adding that he wanted tointerrogate Seifert about Otto Sein, another SS guard whoserved at the Bolzano prison at the same time.
Seifert was born in 1924 in Ukraine, then part of theSoviet Union, and began work as a guard in the Nazi SD securityservice after the German occupation. He was a member of the SSby the time he served at the Bolzano camp, court documentssaid.
He moved to Canada after the war, claiming to be fromEstonia, and found employment as a mill worker in Vancouver,where he raised a family and lived until he was arrested atItaly's request in 2002.
Seifert fought his extradition in Canadian courts, but theSupreme Court of Canada refused last month to hear his appeal.
Seifert's lawyers had argued he had been convicted unfairlyin Italy and that Canadian officials were biased against him inallowing the extradition.
The Canadian Jewish Congress said on Friday the extraditionshowed Canada was not a safe hiding place for people wanted forwar crimes. The group estimates 1,000 to 3,000 people with Nazipasts were able to get into Canada illegally between 1947 and1956.
(Additional reporting by Allan Dowd in Vancouver; Editingby Mary Gabriel)
