ROME, Feb. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Four former Nazi officers, all in their 80s, were put on trial on Wednesday in Italy for their alleged connection with a number of World War II massacres.

    The four suspects -- Franz Stockinger, 80, Albert Piepenschneider, 84, Helmut Wulf, 82, and Gunther Finster, 81 -- are accused of taking part in the massacres of nearly 800 people in the northern Italian city of Bologna in 1944.

    The trial in a military court in northern Italy is considered largely symbolic. Even if convicted, the suspects are unlikely to be jailed because of their advanced age. Enditem