MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) - Russia's Main Military Prosecutor's Office has denied rehabilitation to ex-head of the Nazi Military Intelligence Service Hans Pickenbrock and referred corresponding materials to the Supreme Court, said Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky on Monday.
Fridinsky said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta, to come out on Tuesday, that Pickenbrock's rehabilitation was initiated by German citizen Heiko Suhra of the Saxon Memorial public organization.
"We looked into the case and learned quite a few interesting things. In 1937-44 Nazi Germany's military intelligence service Abwehr had five departments. Abwehr-1 was the most important of them and it spied against foreign armies, gathered intelligence from foreign military industry, resources, communication means and relations. General Pickenbrock was in charge of this department during the Great Patriotic War," Fridinsky said.
He said the general-led department "played the key role in Germany's operations at the eastern front."
"Therefore we wrote in our final statement that Pickenbrock's prosecution as a person engaged in spying and waging an aggressive war against the Soviet Union was lawful," Fridinsky said.
"In accordance with the Russian legislation Pickenbrock cannot be rehabilitated. I think the Supreme Court's military board, where our statement has been referred to, will agree with us," Fridinsky said.
General Pickenbrock was taken prisoner and was sentenced to 25 years in 1952 for the war crimes he had committed. However, the general was handed over to West Germany three years after, he said.
Fridinsky also said that an increasing number of requests were coming from German citizens asking for their relatives' rehabilitation. "As many as 117 requests arrived from Germany alone between January and September. The flow of such requests has been increasing with every passing year," he said.
Military courts have heard 24 such criminal cases this year, he said. "Among the applicants are civilians and also former officers of the Wehrmacht and SS troops, accused of committing war crimes. The court denied rehabilitation to all of them," Fridinsky said.