Former Seven Hills resident John Demjanjuk, convicted in May by a German court of helping to murder 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp, lost his latest bid Dec. 20 to regain his U.S. citizenship.

U.S. District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster denied Demjanjuk's motion that prosecutors deliberately withheld internal FBI documents from him, preventing him from mounting a complete defense at his 2001 denaturalization trial, and thus that the court should set aside its 2002 order revoking his citizenship.

The document in question was a 1985 memo from a Cleveland FBI agent suggesting a Nazi-issued photo identification card of Demjanjuk, the so-called Trawniki card, was a Soviet forgery.

The internal FBI documents "contain nothing more than the conjecture of an FBI agent, unsupported by investigation, that would have made no difference in refuting or undermining the government's overwhelming evidence at (Demjanjuk's) denaturalization trial," Polster wrote in rejecting Demjanjuk's claim.

The FBI memo was not material to the denaturalization case, said Cleveland immigration attorney David Leopold. "Even assuming there has been a problem with the Trawniki card, there is (so much) other evidence tying Demjanjuk to Sobibor, Flossenburg and other camps.

"It's clear the (February 2002) verdict of Judge (Paul) Matia was spot on, that Demjanjuk committed fraud when he originally procured his citizenship," said Leopold. "It's not surprising that Judge Polster ruled as he did."

The Trawniki card has been subjected to thorough forensic testing, the U.S. government said in an October court filing. Moreover, it's just one document among "a veritable mountain of evidence from both ex-Soviet and Western archives establishing Demjanjuk's wartime services to the Nazi SS," U.S. prosecutors said.

Furthermore, one of the Cleveland agents directly informed Demjanjuk's then-attorney of his concerns about the document's authenticity, the prosecutors said. Therefore, Demjanjuk was not denied the opportunity to use the information at trial.

"There was no possibility - let alone a reasonable probability - that the Cleveland FBI materials could have affected the outcome of this case," U.S. prosecutors wrote.

In his ruling, Polster noted that Demjanjuk's U.S. citizenship was revoked because he lied on his immigration papers about his wartime service in order to gain entry to the U.S.

"Despite numerous opportunities, Demjanjuk has never provided a single, consistent accounting of his whereabouts during the war years 1942 to 1945," Polster wrote. "On the other hand, the government has provided clear, convincing and unequivocal evidence that Demjanjuk not only lied about his whereabouts during the war, but that he served as a guard at the Sobibor, Trawniki, Majdanek and Flossenburg concentration camps."

"This was a very important piece of litigation for our office," said Carole Rendon, first assistant U.S. attorney in Cleveland, one of several lawyers who worked on the court filing opposing Demjanjuk's motion.

"The judge's ruling was extremely well reasoned. It very effectively and articulately puts permanently to rest any remaining doubt about Demjanjuk's involvement as a guard for the SS during World War II," Rendon said. "And it eliminates any concern over his denaturalization."

Demjanjuk can appeal Polster's denial of his motion either to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal in Cincinnati or file a motion for reconsideration with the judge, she said.

If Polster had set aside Demjanjuk's denaturalization, his defense attorney likely would have sought to have proceedings in Germany stayed or overturned based on the fact that he should not have been deported in 2009 from the U.S., Rendon said.

Demjanjuk, 91, who has repeatedly used claims of his poor health to attempt to stop and delay legal proceedings, has been released pending appeal of his murder conviction. He lives in a Bavarian nursing home and cannot legally leave Germany because he no longer has a passport from any country.

Throughout his more than 30 years of court battles, Demjanjuk has maintained he never was a concentration camp guard. The Ukrainian native was conscripted into the Soviet Red Army in 1940 and captured by the Germans in 1942. He says he spent the remainder of World War II in prisoner-of-war camps.

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem and its chief Nazi hunter, was pleased with Polster's ruling. He also said he hopes Demjanjuk does not win his appeal of his German murder conviction.

Based on the legal precedent the Munich court set in convicting Demjanjuk without evidence that he committed a specific murder, Zuroff last week launched "Operation Last Chance." The project offers the public rewards of up to 25,000 euros for information that leads to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi war criminals.

"The Demjanjuk conviction at long last enables the prosecution of individuals who were active participants in the mass murder of Jews on practically a daily basis for extended periods of time but hereto for legal reasons could not be prosecuted for their crimes," Zuroff said.

He estimates there are at least several dozen cases where prosecutions could be brought to trial. Those with information can email swcjerus@net vision.net.il or call (from the U.S.) 011-49-1573-494-7307.

clevelandjewishnews.com