reuters.com | 01May2009 | Andrew Stern
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE54052020090501?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
U.S. court clears way for Demjanjuk removal
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court cleared the way on Friday
[01May2009] for U.S. authorities to deport accused Nazi death camp
guard John Demjanjuk to Germany, dropping a stay that halted his
removal at the last minute two weeks ago.
"The U.S. Government will continue to seek the removal of Mr. Demjanjuk
to Germany," a Justice Department spokeswoman said, and refused to
comment further.
[W.Z. What
is the name of this "Justice Department" spokeswoman? And does she
speak on behalf of the whole U.S. Department of Justice or just on
behalf of the Office of Special Investigations?]
But there was no indication when U.S. officials, frustrated in their
last attempt, would again move against Demjanjuk.
Prosecutors in Munich, Germany have issued an arrest warrant to put the
Ukraine-born Demjanjuk on trial for assisting in the deaths of 29,000
Jews at the Sobibor extermination camp during World War Two.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that Demjanjuk's
argument -- that moving the ailing 89-year-old former U.S. auto worker
amounted to torture -- was unlikely to succeed so they vacated the stay
preventing his deportation.
The court said U.S. authorities planned to fly him in a jet equipped as
an air ambulance with medical personnel standing by, and Germany had
shown no intention of torturing him.
Demjanjuk's son, John Jr., responded that the family was considering
its options and may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has refused
their appeals in the past. Earlier this week, the family filed suit in
Germany to seek to stop the country from accepting Demjanjuk.
On April 14, 2009, U.S. agents carried Demjanjuk out of his suburban
Cleveland home in a wheelchair and had a government-owned jet ready to
take him to Germany but the Cincinnati appeals court intervened.
The family sought to block his deportation with the Arlington,
Virginia, Board of Immigration Appeals, saying he suffered from
numerous life-threatening ailments and moving him would violate the
United Nations' Convention Against Torture. The board refused to reopen
the case.
Government prosecutors fired back that the torture claims were
ridiculous and they filed medical assessments and even videos that they
said showed Demjanjuk walking and in decent health.
NUMEROUS TWISTS
Demjanjuk's case has had numerous twists and turns since he emigrated
from Germany in 1951.
He was deported from the United States to Israel and sentenced to death
in 1988 as the sadistic guard "Ivan the Terrible" at Treblinka where
870,000 died. Israel's highest court later ruled that he was not "Ivan"
of Treblinka.
After spending years in an Israeli prison, he returned to his home near
Cleveland in 1993 and his citizenship was restored in 1998. At the
time, the appeals court in Cincinnati reprimanded the [OSI within the] Justice
Department for concealing evidence that would have exonerated him in
the Ivan case.
[W.Z.
Finally, Andrew Stern admits to a little skullduggery in the Demjanjuk
case, but "reprimanded" is a little mild compared to "prosecutorial
misconduct constituting fraud on the court". Perhaps Mr. Stern could
expound on the destruction of exonerating documents, the suborning of
perjury by Norman Moscowitz, plain perjury by OSI personnel, etc., etc.
He is invited to digest my Critique of Wiseman's Report at /fc/misc/demanuk011.html ]
U.S. Justice Department Nazi hunters reopened the case, and a U.S.
court convicted him in 2002 of working at three other camps and he was
stripped of his citizenship a second time. Then German prosecutors
moved to try him.
[W.Z. Mr. Stern fails to disclose that German "interest" started just recently after intense lobbying by the OSI and the Holocaust Industry.]
Demjanjuk has denied any role in the Holocaust. He said he was drafted
into the Russian army in 1941, became a German prisoner of war a year
later and served at German prison camps until 1944.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)