The trial of an 88-year-old man accused of murdering three civilians in wartime Holland as part of a Nazi hit squad was postponed Tuesday until next week on medical grounds.

The decision came on the third day of the trial after defense attorneys for Heinrich Boere argued their client could not hear the proceedings properly.

When questioned by presiding Judge Gerd Nohl, Boere _ sitting in a wheelchair with a monitor on a finger of his right hand measuring his blood pressure and blood oxygen levels _ indicated he had not understood when the charges against him were read in court last week, despite saying then that he had.

"Only, lifelong, lifelong," he muttered slowly, indicating he had only understood he faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

Nohl ruled that the trial be postponed until next week so that Boere could be fitted with hearing aids, prompting an angry reaction from the attorney representing the son of one of Boere's victims.

Detlef Hartmann charged the defense with engaging in "delay tactics," saying that Boere's hearing issues could have been worked out a year ago.

"This could have been taken care of in advance," said Hartmann, whose client Teun de Groot's father was among the victims in 1944. De Groot has joined the trial as a co-plaintiff as allowed under German law.

"Now we've lost another day."

Defense attorney Gordon Christansen rejected that the request for hearing aids was part of any sort of strategy.

"It is the defense's right to check the ability of our client to stand trial at any time," he told reporters after the court session. Continued...