An 85-year-old man deported from the U.S. went on trial Monday in his native Lithuania on charges of helping Nazis round up Jews during World War II.

Algimantas Dailide is accused of being a member of the Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian Security Police, known as the Saugumas, which took part in the
arrests of Jews during the war.

Dailide, who moved to the U.S. in 1955 and lived there until he was deported in 2003 for lying about his wartime past, denied the charges in the Vilnius District Court.

"I worked as a clerk for the Lithuanian police force, not the Nazis," Dailide said. "These accusations sound like a fairy tale (and) absolute nonsense to me."

Most of the 60,000 Jews in Vilnius were killed during a few months in the
autumn of 1941. Nearly 90 percent of Lithuania's prewar Jewish population of 220,000 were killed.

Dailide, who worked as a real estate agent in Cleveland before retiring to Gulfport, Florida, faces 5 to 20 years in prison if convicted. He now lives with his wife in Germany. He voluntarily appeared in the Vilnius court.

Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israel branch of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center, welcomed the start of the trial.

"We hope that the delay of justice and absence of punishment which characterized the cases of Dailide's superiors will not recur in this case," Zuroff said.

Lithuania has previously tried two other suspected Nazi collaborators, Aleksandrs Lileikis and Kazys Gimzauskas. Lileikis died before the court could pass judgment on him and Gimzauskas was found guilty of helping murder Jews but was deemed too infirm to serve his sentence. He died shortly after the trial.

Haaretz, 20.03.06