Convicted Nazi criminal Demjanjuk deemed innocent in Germany over technicality

Convicted war criminal John Demjanjuk, who died in Germany on Saturday [17Mar2012 -- St. Patrick's Day], is deemed innocent there, despite being convicted last year of killings in a Nazi death camp.

Munich state court spokeswoman Margarete Noetzel said this week that under German law, Demjanjuk is "still technically presumed innocent," because he died before his final appeal could be heard, and "a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty."

Asked by Haaretz if that means there is no record of Demjanjuk's conviction, Noetzel replied, "Yes, it means Mr. Demjanjuk has no criminal record."

Since Demjanjuk's conviction cannot be validated legally, due to his death, the conviction remains "merely as an historic fact," Noetzel said.

Last May, Demjanjuk was convicted in Germany of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland and sentenced to five years in prison. He appealed to a higher court and was allowed to wait for the court's verdict on his appeal in a nursing home in south Germany. That is where he died this week.

Demjanjuk's German lawyer, Dr. Ulrich Busch, told Haaretz that the Munich court published the statement regarding his client's presumed innocence at his demand.

"After my client's death, a false statement was distributed to the effect that Mr. Demjanjuk died as a convicted war criminal," Busch told Haaretz in an exchange of e-mails. "The German and international media accepted this version and sullied my client, portraying him as one who led 28,000 people to the gas chambers."

Busch said he demanded the legal authorities in Germany issue a clarification saying his client "died innocent and without conviction," and that his conviction by a lower court "is invalid.

"The statement issued now clears my client's name and restores his dignity," he said.

"It's a great consolation to his family, which is grieving over the loss of a husband and father, who died alone in far away Germany," Busch added.

He described Ukraine-born Demjanjuk's conviction as a "legal scandal."

"I was and still am convinced the Supreme Court would have granted his appeal and acquitted him this year, had he not died before the procedure ended," he said.

Prof. Cornelius Nestler, who represented the families of Demjanjuk's victims, told Haaretz on Thursday: "He is not innocent. Only technically-legally. Unofficially, he is presumed innocent."

"Why is this important?" Nestler asked. "On the one hand he's presumed innocent, on the other, there's the conviction, which established that he served as a wachman [guard] in Sobibor and therefore was accessory to murder."

Efraim Zuroff, who heads the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said the statement about Demjanjuk's "presumed innocence" was "completely wacky."

Zuroff said a funeral for Demjanjuk in his adopted hometown in the United States would turn into a spectacle and a demonstration of support for him.

The testimonies presented by the prosecutors at Demjanjuk's trial proved he had served as a Nazi guard in Sobibor for several months in 1943. Since tens of thousands of people had been murdered there during that time, he was convicted of being accessory to murder, without testimony of his direct personal involvement in the murders.

His family in Ohio plans to fly Demjanjuk's body to the United States for burial.

Even though Demjanjuk had been stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 2004 and deported, there is no prohibition against returning the body to the country, the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland said.

Dear Dr. Busch,

My name is Ofer Aderet and I'm a reporter in Haaretz daily newspaper in Israel.

The Justizpressestelle bei dem Oberlandesgericht München claims that Demjanjuk is innocent. See above:

Ja, das bedeutet, dass Herr Demjanjuk als nicht vorbestraft gilt. Im Rechtssinne gilt jeder als unschuldig, solange er nicht rechtskräftig verurteilt ist und das gesprochene Urteil kann wegen seines Todes nicht mehr rechtskräftig werden. Das Urteil bleibt also nur als historische Tatsache bestehen.

I'd like to ask for your comment/reaction. What does it mean to the family of your client? To you? and in general?

Dear Mr. Aderet!

Das Simon Wiesenthal Zentrum hat unmittelbar nach dem Tod meines Mandanten die unwahre Behauptung verbreitet, das Urteil des Landgerichts München sei jetzt rechtskrtäftig und Herr Demjanjuk als schuldiger und verurteilter Kriegsverbrecher gestorben. Die deutsche und internationale Presse hat diese Version übernommen und meinen Mandanten rundweg als verurteilten Kriegsverbrecher verunglimpft, der 28000 Menschen in die Gaskammern von Sobibor getrieben habe. Ich habe daraufhin die Staatsanwaltschaft  München, den Präsidenten des LG München II, den Präsidenten des Oberlandesgerichts München und die Justizministerin von Bayern schriftlich aufgefordert, durch Pressemitteilung klarzustellen, daß mein Mandant als Unschuldiger und unverurteilt gestorben ist, und das Urteil des LG München II gegenstandslos ist. Dies ist nunmehr geschehen.

Die Mitteilung des Oberlandesgerichts rehabilitiert meinen Mandanten und stellt seine Ehre wieder her. Das ist ein großer Trost für seine Familie in ihrem Schmerz über den Verlust ihres Ehemannes und Vaters, der sein Leben im fernen Deutschland, was nicht nur Millionen Menschen jüdischen Glaubens Tod und Verderben, sondern auch ihm und seinen Soldaten-Kameraden Tod und unendliches Leid gebracht hat, allein und auf sich gestellt beenden mußte. Schon der Richter Barrak vom israelischen Supreme Court hatte klargestellt, daß mein Mandant garnicht wegen Sobibor verurteilt werden könne, weil niemand wisse oder beweisen könne, wann er dort gewesen oder nicht gewesen sei und was er wann getan habe. Daß dann gerade Deutschland als "Land der Täter" John Demjanjuk wegen Sobibor auf einer mehr als zweifelhaften Rechtsgrundlage angeklagt hat, war objektiv eine "schallende Ohrfeige" für das höchste israelische Gericht und ein juristischer Skandal. Ich war und bin überzeugt davon, daß auch das deutsche höchste Gericht meinen Mandanten noch in diesem Jahr 2012 freigesprochen hätte, wenn nicht der Tod von Herrn Demjanjuk das Verfahren beendet hätte.

Für mich ist mit der Feststellung des Oberlandesgerichts die Sinnlosigkeit des deutschen Versuches bewiesen, 70 Jahre nach dem Krieg plötzlich mit juristisch zweifelhaften Mitteln nachweisen zu wollen, daß Ausländer für den Holocaust verantwortlich waren, zumal die deutschen  Mörder am jüdischen Volk in einer geradezu skandalösen Weise bis auf wenige von Strafverfolgung verschont wurden. Wir als Deutsche müssen sicher stellen, daß die Opfer des Holocaust nicht umsonst gestorben sind. Der Prozeß gegen Herrn Demjanjuk lenkt die Junge Generation von den Greueltaten der Deutschen ab und drängt diese in den Hintergrund. Das kann man nicht akzeptieren.

Demjanjuk deemed innocent in Germany

http://ukemonde.blogspot.ca/2012/03/demjanjuk-deemed-innocent-in-germany.html

Munich state court spokeswoman Margarete Noetzel said this week that under German law, Demjanjuk is "still technically presumed innocent," because he died before his final appeal could be heard, and "a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty."

Asked by Haaretz if that means there is no record of Demjanjuk's conviction, Noetzel replied, "Yes, it means Mr. Demjanjuk has no criminal record."

Since Demjanjuk's conviction cannot be validated legally, due to his death, the conviction remains "merely as an historic fact," Noetzel said.

Last May, Demjanjuk was convicted in Germany of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland and sentenced to five years in prison. He appealed to a higher court and was allowed to wait for the court's verdict on his appeal in a nursing home in south Germany. That is where he died this week.

Demjanjuk's German lawyer, Dr. Ulrich Busch, told Haaretz that the Munich court published the statement regarding his client's presumed innocence at his demand.