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This week in a hushed courtroom packed with German spectators, many of them with the stiff, erect bearing of former Wehrmacht officers, Manstein heard the verdict. He was found guilty on nine counts concerning execution and maltreatment of Russian soldiers and civilians; he was cleared of eight other counts, notably concerning the extermination of Jews. Then the court pronounced sentence: 18 years in prison. For 62-year-old Field Marshal Fritz Erich von Manstein, it was probably a life term.