CLEVELAND
(AP) — The U.S. government said Tuesday it is asking German
officials for travel documents needed to deport accused World
War II Nazi guard John Demjanjuk, who is charged in Europe
with 29,000 counts of accessory to murder.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided an e-mail to The Associated Press
showing that it has contacted the German government in
its effort to deport Demjanjuk, once accused but ultimately
cleared of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka concentration
camp in occupied Poland.
The 88-year-old suburban Cleveland
man was charged in Germany in March with crimes while
working as a guard at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland.
His son, John Demjanjuk Jr.,
said Tuesday that his father remains at home and is not
in federal custody.
The German warrant seeks the
deportation or extradition of Demjanjuk, who lives in
Seven Hills and denies involvement in any deaths.
Prosecutors in Munich, Germany,
said Demjanjuk (pronounced dem-YAHN'-yuk) will be formally
charged in front of a judge once he is extradited.
"In this capacity,
he participated in the accessory to murder of at least
29,000 people of the Jewish faith," the prosecutor's office has said. It is handling the case because Demjanjuk
spent time at a refugee camp in the area after the war.
The suspect's family has said
he is in poor health and unable to travel.
"My dad spent a
few hours in the emergency room the other day," John Demjanjuk Jr. said. "He is being treated for kidney stones at present."
He said his father has chronic
kidney disease, along with other serious ailments.
Kurt Schrimm, head of the
special German prosecutors' office that has hunted Nazis
since 1958 and who asked Munich prosecutors to pursue
Demjanjuk's extradition, declined to comment Tuesday.
Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi
hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based
human rights organization, welcomed the development.
"We're very pleased
that these steps are being taken to facilitate Demjanjuk's
extradition to Germany so that he can be tried and can
be given an appropriate punishment for his heinous crimes
during World War II," Zuroff told The Associated Press by phone from Jerusalem.
German Justice Ministry spokesman
Ulrich Staudegle said he could not confirm that U.S.
authorities had requested any specific documents, but
reiterated that the German government was working closely
with the U.S. to secure Demjanjuk's extradition or deportation.
Demjanjuk was accused in 1977
of concealing a past as a notorious Nazi death camp guard
known as "Ivan the Terrible" at Treblinka. Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel in 1986 and two years later
was sentenced to death after being found guilty of war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
He appealed, and in 1993 Israel's
top court ruled 5-0 that Demjanjuk was not "Ivan the Terrible." He was allowed to return to the United States.
The Justice Department sought
in 1999 to revoke Demjanjuk's restored citizenship, alleging
he was a guard at Nazi camps of death and forced labor.
The chief immigration judge ruled in 2005 that Demjanjuk
could be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.
The U.S. Supreme Court in
May declined to hear an appeal of the deportation ruling.
Associated Press writers Patrick
McGroarty and Vanessa Gera in Berlin contributed to this
report.
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