German prosecutors drop decades-old Chilean murder case

BERLIN – German prosecutors say they’ve dropped their investigation into possible accessory to murder charges against a man for a crime allegedly committed in a secretive German colony in Chile more than four decades ago.

Muenster prosecutors said Tuesday there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges against the 72-year-old, whose name wasn’t given, and other possible charges were all past the statute of limitations.

The victim was an opponent of Chile’s military dictatorship in 1976 who was kidnapped and thought to have been brought to the Colonia Dignidad, then killed and buried.

But the suspect said while he knew prisoners were brought to the colony and he’d helped watch them, he didn’t know of any killings.

Prosecutors said they also couldn’t prove when and where the victim had been killed.