Germany on Friday filed a lawsuit against Italy at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Rome allowing victims of Nazi war crimes to demand compensation from Berlin in violation of the country's sovereignty and contrary to a previous court decision, ICJ said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2022) Germany on Friday filed a lawsuit against Italy at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Rome allowing victims of Nazi war crimes to demand compensation from Berlin in violation of the country's sovereignty and contrary to a previous court decision, ICJ said.
"Italy has violated, and continues to violate, its obligation to respect Germany's sovereign immunity by allowing civil claims to be brought against Germany based on violations of international humanitarian law committed by the German Reich between 1943 and 1945, including, but not limited to, in 25 proceedings, listed in Annex 6 (to the Application), instituted against Germany since the judgment of the Italian Constitutional Court of 22 October 2014," the ICJ press release said.
Germany has referred to a 2012 court decision that confirms that the country has legal immunity from court claims filed by the victims of Nazism. However, in 2014, the Italian Constitutional Court ruled that the obligation to follow the 2012 decision depends on the principle of legal protection of fundamental rights in accordance with the country's constitutional law.
According to the statement, Berlin is calling on the court to declare that Rome continues to violate the obligation to respect Germany's sovereign immunity by taking coercive measures against state property on its territory.
Even though the ICJ ruled in 2012 that this violates Berlin's right to immunity under international law, 25 more lawsuits have been filed in Italy demanding compensation from Germany since then. In two cases, Italian courts tried to arrest property belonging to Germany in Rome to implement the decisions.
