Re Enkelstroth

• Court: Special Criminal Court (Netherlands)
• Docket Number: Case No. 222
• Date: 20 Febrero 1948

Holland, Special Court (War Criminals) of Arnhem.

Case No. 222

In re Enkelstroth.

Belligerent Occupation — Duties of the Occupant — Shooting of Civilians without Due Process of Law — Articles 30 and 46 of the Hague Regulations of 1907.

The Facts.—In the winter of 1944–45, during the occupation of Holland, Enkelstroth, a German police officer, shot four persons who had been arrested by the German Security Service but who had not been tried. After the war he was prosecuted in Holland as a war criminal.

Held: that he was guilty of a war crime. A police officer who shot arrested persons who had not been the subject of previous judicial proceedings violated the recognized laws of war. Such proceedings must comprise an objective examination by a properly constituted judicial authority into the culpability and liability to punishment of an accused person, while the latter must be given the opportunity to defend himself against all the charges brought against him. The shooting in question was so clearly at variance with international law that even a police officer of inferior rank must have known that it was unlawful. Article 30 of...