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Germany is preparing for what could be the last Nazi war criminal trial as the
country's highest court ruled a former death camp guard
known as 'Ivan the Terrible' can be tried in Munich.
Ukrainian-born Ivan Demjanjuk, 88, is alleged to have been involved in the murder
of over 29,000 Jews when he served as a guard in several
Nazi prisons including the death camp Sobibor in Poland
during World War II.
Demjanjuk moved to America in 1952 and changed his first name to John, and now
lives as a retired car worker in Ohio.
Last month, a court in Munich
ruled that Demjanjuk, who was dubbed Ivan the Terrible
for his role in the mass murder, could not be charged in
Germany.
But Germany's Federal Court of
Justice has overturned the verdict, making it possible
for Demjanjuk to be indicted and tried in Munich, where
he lived before emigrating to America.
The court ruling read: "Demjanjuk,
who is accused of involvement in the killing of at least
29,000 Jews in the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland
in 1943, lived for several months in 1951 in a camp in
the current jurisdiction of the court."
The office of the German Federal
Prosecutor indicated that new evidence that surfaced after
Demjanjuk trial in Israel in 1986 would be sufficient to
charge him with war crimes. Demjanjuk always denied having
served in the Nazi army and claimed to have been fighting
in the former Soviet armed forces.
German authorities are now expected
to seek extradition and put Demjanjuk on trial, which is
likely to be the last high-profile process of an alleged
Nazi war criminal. Demjanjuk was already extradited to
Israel once where he was sentenced to death in Israel in
1986, but a higher instance court overturned the verdict
for lack of evidence and he was allowed to return to America.
Demjanjuk's relatives in America
repeatedly said that he was too old to stand trial, but
Charlotte Knobloch, president of Germany's Central Council
of Jews, urged authorities to "do everything legally possible to accelerate the process so that Demjanjuk can
be held responsible for his crimes during his lifetime."
"Demjanjuk and all
other Nazi criminals still alive should know that for them
there is no mercy," Mrs Knobloch said.
telegraph.co.uk
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