BRITAIN'S first war crimes trial collapsed yesterday when a jury ruled that the defendant, a former police commander in Belarus during the Nazi occupation was not mentally fit to be tried.
Doctors had told the court that Mr Szymon Serafinowicz (86) was suffering from dementia, probably caused by Alzheimer's disease.
"The result of this [decision] is that all proceedings in this case are stayed," the prosecutor, Sir Derek Spencer, said.
A doctor called by the prosecution during the eight day hearing, held in conditions of complete secrecy for legal reasons, said he believed the defendant was faking the symptoms.
The hearing had been called to decide whether Mr Serafinowicz was fit enough to stand a full trial for war crimes, which had been expected to last about eight weeks.
The case was to have been the first held under Britain's controversial War Crimes Act, passed in 1991 despite huge opposition in the House of Lords.
Mr Serafinowicz emigrated to Britain after the second World War and lived in Banstead, south of London.
He was charged with three specimen counts of murdering Jews in his homeland Belarus (then known as Byelorussia) during the winter of 1941-42.
He denied the charges.