Anthony Sawoniuk, 77, of Bermondsey, is only the second person to face such charges in Britain since the law was changed in 1991.

The BBC's Legal Affairs Correspondent Joshua Rozenberg reports from the court

The retired railway worker is charged with murdering two unnamed Jewish women and two named men in circumstances constituting a violation of the laws and customs of war.

The offences are said to have happened during the autumn of 1942 at the town of Domachevo in Belarus which was then under German occupation.

The senior full-time London magistrate Graham Parkinson has been hearing evidence for six weeks and has now decided that there is a case to answer, although a fifth charge relating to another Jew has been discharged.

The defendant has been released on bail on condition that he remains living at his Bermondsey home until the trial takes place. A first hearing at the old Bailey is due on July 24.