DUBLIN, Ireland -- The government Thursday banned a millionaire Nazi war criminal from returning to live in his Irish country mansion after his release from prison.
The decision to ban Pieter Menten, 85, from Ireland was made at a meeting of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Garrett Fitzgerald, a government spokesman said.
The exclusion order was later signed by Justice Minister Michael Noonan.
Menten is scheduled to be released from a Dutch prison on Friday and the exclusion order was to be issued by the Irish government late Thursday.
Ireland's decision follows a controversy over whether Menten should be allowed to return to his mansion, Comeragh House, set on 30 acres of woodland in County Waterford, where he lived between 1964 and his arrest in 1979.
Menten, a millionaire, was convicted in 1979 by a Dutch court of complicity in the 1941 mass murder of Jews by Nazi SS troops in Podhoroce, a town now located in the Soviet Ukraine. It was not clear how Menten made his fortune.
At least 195 Jews were killed but the charges against Menten cited '20 to 30 deaths.' Five witnesses to the massacre said Menten supervised the slaughter, but none saw him fire a weapon.
Ireland's Jewish community led protests calling on the Fitzgerald government to prohibit Menten from returning to Ireland. Some of Menten's neighbours in Waterford also opposed his return.
Comeragh House was attacked and set on fire by a group of masked men six years ago. It has since been restored and is reported to contain a collection of art treasures.
The estate's security alarm system has been modernized in recent weeks in anticipation of Menten's return and Irish police had planned to mount a 24-hour armed guard on the house.
