Dutch war criminal Heinrich Boere has made a full confession to the three murders for which he stands accused.

The 88-year old told a court in Aachen, Germany, that he had joined the Nazi SS during World War II and killed three Dutch citizens in reprisal for anti-Nazi attacks.

In 1949, two years after escaping from a Dutch prison, Boere was sentenced to death in absentia by a Dutch court for the three murders.

He reappeared in Germany in 1954. Because he had by then acquired German citizenship, he could not be extradited to the Netherlands. A Dutch request to have him serve time in a German prison was denied because his conviction was ruled invalid by a German court. Instead, the German justice ministry began its own case against Boere.

Before he made his confession, the court denied a defence motion to dismiss the case. The motion was filed last Monday, when the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect. The treaty states that a court in the European Union cannot try or sentence an accused for the same crime more than once.

The court ruled that the ban on double jeopardy was insufficient grounds for dismissal, arguing that the rule does not apply if the accused flees the country where he was prosecuted in order to avoid serving prison time.

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