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Hans Filbinger, a leading conservative politician in West Germany who was forced out of office in 1978 by a scandal surrounding his role as a military judge during the Third Reich, has died aged 93.
Filbinger was premier of Baden-Wuerttemberg from 1966 to 1978 until he quit after revelations about his part in the execution of a sailor and death sentences he issued in absentia for two others at the end of World War II.
The Mannheim-born lawyer became a symbol of post-war West Germany's failure to face up to the legacy of Hitler's regime after weekly magazine Die Zeit published details of his career as a naval judge in occupied Norway.
Filbinger denied any wrongdoing, but negative publicity and increasing pressure from his conservative Christian Democrat party finally prompted him to resign as state premier.
His reputation suffered greatly when weekly magazine Der Spiegel said he had defended his actions under the Nazis by saying: "What was the law then cannot be unlawful now," though his press office said the remark was taken out of context.
After his resignation Filbinger continued to defend himself against critics, saying he had saved others from execution and had served as prosecutor in only one case when a death sentence was carried out on orders from above.
