War crimes suspect faces new tests

A frail-looking Gross appeared in court at his first trial

An Austrian judge has ordered a new medical report on an alleged Nazi war criminal previously judged unfit to stand trial.

Heinrich Gross, an 84-year-old doctor, is accused of complicity in the murder of nine disabled children in Vienna during World War II. He has denied the charges.

Judge Karlheinz Seewald suspended the trial three weeks ago after a court medical expert testified that Dr Gross suffered from dementia.

The new expert witness will arrive at the same conclusion as the previous one

Nikolaus Lehner

The judge reviewed his decision on Friday after watching interviews on state television in which Dr Gross appeared alert and lucid.

The new report, due to be completed within weeks, is likely to be carried out by an expert from Germany or Switzerland.

Dr Gross was, until recently, an Austrian court psychiatrist and was said to be close to his colleagues.

Dr Gross' lawyer, Nikolaus Lehner, said: "I am convinced that the new expert witness will arrive at the same conclusion as the previous one."

If the case returns to court, it will be the country's first such trial since 1975.

Leading psychiatrist

The nine children died in the summer of 1944 under a euthanasia programme ordered by the Nazis at the Vienna clinic where Dr Gross was in charge.

The brains of children are stored in a Vienna hospital

After the war, Dr Gross was charged with manslaughter and served only a few months in prison.

He became Austria's leading forensic psychiatrist and did research on the brains of some of the children he is alleged to have killed.

He developed a reputation as a leading neuro-surgeon and court-appointed psychiatrist.

After Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, 772 children were killed in Vienna for euthanasia research.

The victims were starved, then poisoned and their brains preserved for research.

The brains of children are still stored in Austria's largest psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Vienna.