Guido Mussolini, 69, was told by the Cassation Court that there is no reason to reopen an investigation into the shooting death of the Fascist leader at the hands of partisans in 1945, ANSA reported Thursday.

The dictator's grandson began a legal battle in 2006 to establish "by judicial means, and therefore definitively" the cause of Mussolini's death, but a Como, Italy, judge ruled in October that the statute of limitations had passed for an investigation into the slaying.

Guido Mussolini's lawyers appealed the decision, claiming the statute cannot be applied because "it wasn't an ordinary homicide but the killing of a head of state in violation of laws covering prisoners of war."

Lawyers for Guido, who claims footage of his grandfather's death is being kept in a private archive in Washington, said they plan to continue the legal battle.

"We are entitled to ask for the case to be reopened if fresh evidence emerges," they said.