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Ohio man accused of having Nazi past fights deportation
Updated 4/1/2009 10:05 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print

CLEVELAND (AP) — An Ohio man with a reputed Nazi past is asking the United States to block his deportation to Germany, citing humanitarian reasons. John Demjanjuk made the request in a document filed Wednesday with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Demjanjuk, who turns 89 on Friday, is charged in an arrest warrant in Germany with 29,000 counts of acting as an accessory to murder while working as a guard at a Nazi death camp during World War II.

In the statement dated Tuesday, Demjanjuk tells ICE he is in poor physical condition and that being sent to Germany would be inappropriate and degrading treatment.

John Demjanjuk Jr. said Wednesday that his father's worsening health prompted the decision to contact U.S. immigration officials. He has said his father suffers from chronic kidney disease and other ailments.

"He doesn't understand all the details," Demjanjuk Jr. said. "He does understand that he's been ordered deported. He understands that Germany is considering accepting him and that they're saying they will arrest him and put him on trial again, like Israel did."

Demjanjuk was sentenced to death in 1988 after being tried and convicted in Israel for war crimes. In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court determined he was not the notorious Nazi death camp guard Ivan the Terrible at Treblinka in Poland, and he was sent home to Seven Hills in suburban Cleveland.

The charges now place him as a guard at Sobibor during the war.

The ICE regional office in Detroit, which oversees deportation cases in Ohio, had no immediate response to Demjanjuk's request, ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said.

Munich prosecutors, who are handling the case because Demjanjuk spent time at a refugee camp in the area after the war, were not available for comment. Germany's federal office that pursues Nazi-era crimes has said it believes there is enough evidence to charge him.

The case that led to an arrest warrant is based partly on recently obtained transport lists of Jewish prisoners who arrived by train at Sobibor during Demjanjuk's tenure at the camp from March 1943 to September 1943.

"I can't fathom how they will actually follow through with the plans we've heard about from Germany — getting him there and putting his through any legal proceeding. He can't get up out of a chair on his own. He can't walk on his own. He can't get up out of bed without gasping in pain," Demjanjuk Jr. said.

In a letter accompanying the filing, Demjanjuk's lawyer, John Broadley, confirmed that ICE recently fit his client with a GPS ankle band to monitor his whereabouts.

So he wasn't the big fish they wanted to fry, but he's still involved. Let him go back to his native Germany, let them take him back to deal with him. Too stupid to understand what's going on my @$$.

seems that is what is going to happen after all ............

Immigration judge revokes Demjanjuk's deportation stay
Updated 4/6/2009 4:12 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print


Enlarge By Mark Duncan, AP

John Demjanjuk, left, is helped by Ed Nishnic as he arrives at the federal building in Cleveland in this Feb. 28, 2005, file photo. In a Monday ruling, a U.S. immigration judge revoked Demjanjuk's stay of deporation to Germany.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A U.S. immigration judge in Virginia on Monday revoked John Demjanjuk's stay of deportation to Germany, clearing the way for the retired autoworker to be sent to Germany to face charges of being a Nazi death camp guard.
The ruling takes effect Wednesday, unless Demjanjuk is able to successfully appeal. There was no immediate indication if he would try.

The 89-year-old suburban Cleveland man came to America after World War II. He is accused in a German arrest warrant of 29,000 counts of acting as an accessory to murder at a death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943. He has denied involvement in any deaths.

Authorities in Germany had initially expected him to arrive in that country on Monday. But Demjanjuk won a reprieve Friday after arguing that his case should be reopened and that being forced to go to Germany would amount to torture because of his poor health.

Judge Wayne R. Iskra, who granted the initial stay, reversed the decision Monday without a hearing. He agreed with the U.S. Justice Department's response that the matter should be handled by the Board of Immigration Appeals, which has previously upheld Demjanjuk's removal.

The German Justice Ministry said it was following the U.S. court action closely.

"We have, though, no influence on the process there. It's something within the American justice system," said Justice Ministry spokesman Ulrich Staudigl.

i wonder if he will live to stand trial ?


Demjanjuk tries again to avoid deportation
Updated 1h 59m ago | Comments 6 | Recommend E-mail | Save | Print |


Enlarge Demjanjuk family/AP

This image from video released by John Demjanjuk's family shows Demjanjuk getting assistance getting out of bed in Seven Hills, Ohio, on Thursday.

Yahoo! Buzz Digg Newsvine Reddit FacebookWhat's this?CLEVELAND (AP) — The deportation of alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk should be blocked because forcing the frail 89-year-old to go to Germany would amount to torture, his attorney said in a court filing Tuesday.
John Broadley, the attorney for the retired autoworker from Seven Hills in suburban Cleveland, asked the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Va., to block his client's deportation and reopen a U.S. case that has ordered Demjanjuk deported.

Germany had wanted Demjanjuk in the country Monday. But a U.S. immigration judge Friday agreed to temporarily halt his removal from the United States, then revoked that decision Monday. The stay expires Wednesday.

Demjanjuk is accused in a German arrest warrant of 29,000 counts of acting as an accessory to murder at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943. He has denied involvement in any deaths.

The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk came to the United States after World War II as a refugee.

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In Germany, Demjanjuk would have a chance to respond to the allegations before a judge in Munich. German prosecutors are making their case based largely on evidence used in the United States to strip Demjanjuk of his citizenship in 2002.

In a three-page signed statement last week, Demjanjuk asked for asylum in the U.S. and said deporting him "will expose me to severe physical and mental pain that clearly amount to torture under any reasonable definition of the term."

He said he suffers severe spinal, hip and leg pain and has a bone marrow disorder, kidney disease, anemia, kidney stones, arthritis, gout and spinal deterioration.

Broadley said a government physician examined Demjanjuk on Thursday to determine his ability to travel and there was "dramatic evidence" of his back pain. Broadley submitted a portion of the exam videotape to the government on Friday as part of his argument against deportation.

The Justice Department responded by saying Demjanjuk's medical capacity to stand trial abroad "is, of course, irrelevant in a removal proceeding."

Demjanjuk first gained U.S. citizenship in 1958. But his citizenship was revoked in 1981 when the Justice Department alleged he had served the Nazis as the notorious Nazi guard "Ivan the Terrible" in Poland at the Treblinka death camp.

He was extradited to Israel in 1986, and two years later he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He appealed, and Israel's Supreme Court in 1993 ruled that Demjanjuk was not Ivan the Terrible and allowed him to return to the United States.

His U.S. citizenship was restored in 1998. The Justice Department went after his citizenship again, making a case that he had served at Sobibor and other death or forced labor camps.

I knew an old timer who had the same thing happen to him. I used to deliver papers to his house as a kid. The guy had a guard position at a camp. They sent him off for trial overseas. I had heard he wasn't convicted but never did see him around again. After his deportation his house was auctioned off.