It confers jurisdiction on courts in the United Kingdom to try people for war crimes committed in Nazi Germany or German-occupied territory during the Second World War by people who were not British citizens at the time but have since become British citizens or residents.

The legislation was enacted as there were no provisions to allow the extradition of British residents or naturalised citizens to face trial for war crimes in third countries at the time.

[1] Other countries, such as the United States, have used civil rather than criminal proceedings to resolve this issue by revoking citizenship of suspects, therefore facilitating their deportation.

In 1999, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder during his involvement with the collaborationist Belarusian Auxiliary Police.

His trial commenced in 1997 for the murder of three unnamed Jews committed as during his role as Police chief in Mir.