Mussolini's grandson pursues case

[Kyt]

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411366/1387155

Benito Mussolini's grandson vowed to take his case to an international court after an Italian judge shelved a criminal inquiry into the death of the fascist dictator.

Guido said on Monday he and his lawyer were considering bringing the case to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands. He doubts official World War Two accounts that Mussolini was executed by a partisan fighter.

"We're going ahead with the case ... The Hague, Strasbourg," the 69-year-old pensioner told Reuters.

Strasbourg is the seat of the European Court of Human Rights, another possible venue, said Guido's lawyer, Luciano Randazzo. "We have to evaluate our options," he told Reuters.

Judge Nicoletta Cremona in the northern lakeside town of Como on Monday called off a criminal investigation into the April 1945 death of Mussolini.

She said the killing was an act of war and could not be classified as a murder, according to the AGI news agency.

Along with mistress

Court officials in Como, near where Mussolini was killed along with his mistress, Clara Petacci, could not be reached for comment.

Guido said he felt vindicated because the judge recognised as plausible his argument that Mussolini was killed by the British secret service rather than an Italian partisan.

Guido filed his complaint in August 2006. Not only did he want to find out the identity of Mussolini's killer, but also have his killing recognised as a crime.

Even though he was legally obliged to open the investigation, the prosecutor was open about his doubts about the case, given that the killing was covered by a 1946 amnesty.

After Mussolini was killed while fleeing Allied forces, his body was moved to Milan and strung up by the feet for public viewing alongside Petacci at a petrol station.

Speculation surrounds his final moments.

Official resistance accounts say Mussolini was executed "in the name of the Italian people" by partisan Walter Audisio near Lake Como.

But the resistance fighter who captured Mussolini, Urbano Lazzaro, said in 1995 that the dictator and Petacci had been dead for four hours when their partisan "execution" took place.