The last Nazi war criminal tried in a German court has been sentenced to less than two weeks in prison for each of their deaths. This is John Demjanjuk, found guilty of 28,060 charges of complicity in murder as a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp and a Munich court has just sentenced to 6 years in prison, will not be met because of his advanced age.
Demjanjuk, 90, has managed to repeatedly delay the trial for 16 months, citing health problems. His lawyer, Ulrich Busch, after failing with its strategy to deny the true identity and claim that Demjanjuk was never awarded to the camp of Sobibor, had flooded the court in recent months with motions seeking further evidence and witnesses.
The judges rejected the latest motions, more than 350, saying that many issues raised and resolved in court and others were more statements that request. Demjanjuk, who has not spoken a word since his appearance in court in November 2009 and attended the trial bedridden or wheelchair, threatened in late February with a hunger strike if not admitted for processing new records in defense.
Rejected, for example, a request for further analysis of an identity card issued by the Nazis that supposedly shows a picture indicating Demjanjuk was sent to work as a guard at Sobibor. Experts testified that the card seems genuine, but the defense argued that was originally in Russian hands, so it might be a forgery by the Soviet KGB.
But as has been testing the prosecution, the man who takes off his sunglasses inside the courthouse is actually Demjanjuk, Ukrainian-born, recruited by the Soviet army in 1942 and captured by the Nazis. After a short detention, offered to keep volunteer and was awarded the camp of Sobibor, where he rose in rank because of its "effectiveness." In the decade of the 50 managed to flee from Germany and emigrated to the U.S., changed his first name, Ivan, by John and became an American citizen.
In 1975 he was identified as a Nazi criminal was extradited to Israel, where he was tried as the alleged "Ivan the Terrible" of Treblinka and was sentenced to death by hanging in 1988. After five years on death row were overturned the conviction, to be identified as "Ivan the Terrible" to another Ukrainian, Ivan Marchenko.
He returned to the U.S., which had withdrawn citizenship, but where he continued to live as a stateless person having his family there. The Munich prosecutor's office reopened the record in 2008 after the discovery of an ancient record that identified him as a so-called "Trawniki (volunteer guards), known for his extreme cruelty.
After a long tug of war, exhausted all appeals before the U.S. justice was delivered to Germany in May 2009.
Demjanjuk, 90, has managed to repeatedly delay the trial for 16 months, citing health problems. His lawyer, Ulrich Busch, after failing with its strategy to deny the true identity and claim that Demjanjuk was never awarded to the camp of Sobibor, had flooded the court in recent months with motions seeking further evidence and witnesses.
The judges rejected the latest motions, more than 350, saying that many issues raised and resolved in court and others were more statements that request. Demjanjuk, who has not spoken a word since his appearance in court in November 2009 and attended the trial bedridden or wheelchair, threatened in late February with a hunger strike if not admitted for processing new records in defense.
Rejected, for example, a request for further analysis of an identity card issued by the Nazis that supposedly shows a picture indicating Demjanjuk was sent to work as a guard at Sobibor. Experts testified that the card seems genuine, but the defense argued that was originally in Russian hands, so it might be a forgery by the Soviet KGB.
But as has been testing the prosecution, the man who takes off his sunglasses inside the courthouse is actually Demjanjuk, Ukrainian-born, recruited by the Soviet army in 1942 and captured by the Nazis. After a short detention, offered to keep volunteer and was awarded the camp of Sobibor, where he rose in rank because of its "effectiveness." In the decade of the 50 managed to flee from Germany and emigrated to the U.S., changed his first name, Ivan, by John and became an American citizen.
In 1975 he was identified as a Nazi criminal was extradited to Israel, where he was tried as the alleged "Ivan the Terrible" of Treblinka and was sentenced to death by hanging in 1988. After five years on death row were overturned the conviction, to be identified as "Ivan the Terrible" to another Ukrainian, Ivan Marchenko.
He returned to the U.S., which had withdrawn citizenship, but where he continued to live as a stateless person having his family there. The Munich prosecutor's office reopened the record in 2008 after the discovery of an ancient record that identified him as a so-called "Trawniki (volunteer guards), known for his extreme cruelty.
After a long tug of war, exhausted all appeals before the U.S. justice was delivered to Germany in May 2009.
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This article uses the term 'Polish camp of Sobibor' twice in the piece. Unfortunately this is an incorrect term and offensive. The Nazis established the 'camps' on occupied Polish soil. The camps were not Polish. Please correct the offending remark.
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