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Press Release | 13Aug2012 | Demjanjuk supporters
Letterhead
Date
For immediate release:
DEMJANJUK'S WIDOW: RESTORE
HUSBAND’S US CITIZENSHIP
ACCORDING TO
GERMAN COURT FINDING
On August 13, 2012, attorneys representing Vera Demjanjuk, John
Demjanjuk’s widow, filed a petition with the US Court of Appeals, Sixth
Circuit, for rehearing en
blanc of a previous appeal to have John Demjanjuk’s
American citizenship reinstated.
The media has reported on this event with incorrect references to John
Demjanjuk as a “convicted Nazi war criminal” and with descriptions like
“recently deceased Ohio autoworker convicted of Nazi war
crimes.” They cite a May 2011 lower German criminal court
finding, which in an attempt to set a new legal precedent, held that
Demjanjuk was an accessory to mass murders at Sobibor. That
controversial trial and conviction received worldwide news coverage.
In fact, later that year, in March 2012 a few days after Demjanjuk’s
death, a German court official announced that since Demjanjuk's appeal
had not been heard before he died, he was considered innocent by
operation of German law. That was because German law, which is unlike
the law in America and other common law states, considers an accused
innocent in criminal proceedings until all his appeal rights have been
exhausted. This court official’s proclamation of Demjanjuk’s innocence
received scant press coverage. Haaretz Israeli News, however, reported
on the invalidation of the conviction in a March 23, 2012 article
entitled, “Convicted Nazi criminal Demjanjuk deemed innocent in Germany
over technicality.”
We take the view that no matter where a person is tried, the
presumption of innocence is never a mere technicality. It is the thread
that protects us all from unjust prosecution. Given that Demjanjuk died
with his innocence in tact, it is highly unethical for the press to
state or insinuate that Demjanjuk had any role in Nazi Germany's
crimes. As we have established, that was never proven according to law.
We repeat. John Demjanjuk, despite the fact that over the last 30 years
the US Department of Justice did everything it could to convict him,
including committing a fraud on the US court system, and despite its
internationally orchestrated effort to “bring him to justice”, was
found innocent of any crimes, either in Israel, Germany or the USA.
Failure to report this fact only further discredits the American system
of justice and undermines the legacy of rightful prosecutions of real
Nazi war criminals in the past.
Vera Demjanjuk's mission now is to restore John Demjanjuk’s reputation
and American citizenship. Publishing this news release would greatly
assist her in this task.
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This press release is authorized by ....
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For copy of petition, see ....