Doctors: Demjanjuk Fit To Be Tried

89-Year-Old Faces Murder Trial in Germany For Alleged Role at Nazi-Era Death Camp

(AP)  Doctors have determined that John Demjanjuk is fit to stand trial on charges that he was an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp, prosecutors said Friday.

The doctors said the 89-year-old retired auto worker, recently deported from the United States, can stand trial so long as his time in court does not exceed two 90-minute sessions daily, Munich prosecutors said.

They added that formal charges can be expected this month.

Demjanjuk is accused of being a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Prosecutors allege that he was an accessory to murder in 29,000 cases.

"We are very pleased that this will pave the way for him to be prosecuted in Germany," said Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

"This has been a very complicated case, but it is important that Demjanjuk, who actively participated in the implementation of the Final Solution, finally receive an appropriate punishment," Zuroff said by telephone from Jerusalem.

Demjanjuk has been in custody in Munich since arriving there May 12 after losing a court battle to stay in the United States.

Demjanjuk's health was a key issue in that battle. His son, John Demjanjuk Jr. told The Associated Press in an e-mail that German doctors have determined his father has about 16 months to live, due to his incurable leukemic bone marrow disease.

"With less than (two) years for my father to live, a career-seeking German prosecutor is hastily pressing forward indicative of a 100 percent politically motivated effort to blame Ukrainians and Europeans for the crimes of the Germans," Demjanjuk Jr. wrote.

"This has nothing to do with bringing anyone to justice or fitness for trial. My father will not live to fairly litigate the matter as (he) has successfully done before," he wrote.

Photos taken in April showed Demjanjuk wincing as immigration agents removed him from his home in Seven Hills, Ohio, during an earlier aborted attempt to deport him to Germany.

Images taken days before and released by the U.S. government showed him entering his car unaided.

Demjanjuk says he was a Red Army soldier who spent World War II as a Nazi POW and never hurt anyone.

But Nazi-era documents obtained by U.S. justice authorities and shared with German prosecutors include a photo ID identifying Demjanjuk as a guard at the Sobibor death camp and say he was trained at an SS facility for Nazi guards at Trawniki, also in Poland.

Efforts to prosecute the Ukrainian native began in 1977 and have involved courts and government officials from at least five countries on three continents.

Charges of accessory to murder carry a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison in Germany.

[carolhill814]

Hang him and then waterboard him and after that hang in the towns square so the people can throw rocks at him that ought to do it don't you think so?

[babooph]

A trial for the behavior of what was a 19 year old draftee-under sick orders -70 years later when he is 90??Who dreams up this costly trash ? I still recall the "witness" "NEVER FORGETTING THOSE EYES" in his trial in Israel ,when they thought he was someone else!This "new" proof on who he was is better ???

[johninpennsyl]

They can't move on. ITS ALL THEY GOT.

[skeezix06]

I'm sorry but I see no point in trying and convicting an 89 year old man 60 years later. What are you going to "punish" him with? The death penalty?

Sometimes its better to use some common sense and let it go. Probably sooner rather than later he'll move on to more accurate, efficient, and effective judgment than anything we can do.

[jwills8606]

For god's sake - this whole thing makes me want to vomit. Give it a rest. It's over. Put your spurs away and go home; leave this man alone. All you "Nazi hunters" are doing now, sixty-five years later, is perpetuating a kind of hatred that eats your own souls away and foments a dislike of Jews as implacable seekers of revenge. Stop destroying Mr. Demanjuk and stop destroying yourselves. Move on.

[YuSoWrong]

Knit Demanjuk a sweater to show how progressive you are. A Nazi emblem would be nice.

[Petepilot62]

If Demjanjuk is to be tried then there are a few Bush administration types & some CIA & Gitmo camp guards that should be in the dock with him. How hypocritical America has become.....its sickening.

[YuSoWrong]

A co-worker showed me his tattoo from one of those camps. Anyone who helped in these attrocities deserves to fry.

[Petepilot62]

If Demjanjuk is to be tried then there are a few Bush administration types & some CIA & Gitmo camp guards that should be in the dock with him. How hypocritical America has become.....its sickening.

[sean58z]

John should ask the German Government if he may enter a hospice program. He only has a few months to live so a formal treatment before his death must be granted. John might agree to a polygraph about the war before he passes to God.

[OregonJames]

Lawyers... Evil people willing to abuse the weak and unprotected so that they may profit, while at the same time they ignore the well known and documented war crimes of the wealthy and well connected war criminals like Bush and Cheney.

[Sloughfoot]

Put your thinking cap on-this particular individual would have been a 20-24 year old private pulling a guard shift in some Nazi run prison. That's if he is even the person whom the witch hunters claim him to be. He's been vindicated once and now this staff of aging old fogies is targeting him again in hopes of getting their inquisition front page head lines. Get real, the old dye in the wool Nazi henchmen who were ferreted away by the churches and nations of this world after WWII are for the most part dead.

This "Witch Hunt" is a travesty to all "Freemen" who gave their all in that damn war.