BBC News | 22Dec2006 | News Staff
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6202319.stm

US 'Nazi guard' faces deportation

An 85-year-old man accused of having been a guard at a Nazi death camp has lost an appeal against his deportation from the US to his native Ukraine.

John Demjanjuk, who was ordered to be deported a year ago, can still make a further appeal against this ruling.

He has denied the allegations and his lawyers argued he would be tortured if sent back to Ukraine.

Mr Demjanjuk migrated to the US in 1951 and was briefly [28Feb1986-22Sep1993] deported to Israel amid a 30-year legal battle over his past.

At the time, he was suspected of having been a notorious concentration camp guard, known by the nickname "Ivan the Terrible".

But his name was eventually cleared in an Israeli court and he was spared the death penalty.

[W.Z. The Jerusalem show trial lasted from 16Feb1987 to 24Apr1988 at which time he was convicted by the troika of judges Levin, Dorner and Tal to be hanged. On 29Jul1993, the Supreme Court of Israel exonerated Mr. Demjanjuk. Despite strenuous efforts by the Holocaust Industry to have Mr. Demjanjuk tried "for lesser crimes", the Court ruled that Mr. Demjanjuk must be returned to the United States, upon which Irwin Cotler (later Canadian Minister of Justice) was recorded by the CBC screaming that he would pursue Mr. Demjanjuk to the ends of the earth. Nevertheless, Mr. Demjanjuk was deported from Israel on 22Sep1993.]

Lack of evidence

The Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the 2005 deportation order which said there was no evidence to prove Mr Damjanjuk would be tortured if returned to the Ukraine.

"Simply put, the respondent's arguments regarding the likelihood of torture are speculative and not based on evidence in record," the board stated.

Mr Demjanjuk's lawyer, John Broadley said he was studying the ruling.

"What their reasoning is, we'll have to take a look at, and federal courts will have to look at it, too," he said.

His son, John Demjanjuk Jr, believed an appeal could still be made, adding: "We're not aware of any country offering to accept him from the United States."

The US Justice Department said efforts were continuing to remove him from the country as soon as possible.

Citizenship battle

Mr Demjanjuk returned to the US and his citizenship -- which he had lost for allegedly lying to US immigration officials -- was restored in 1998.

[W.Z. The BBC fails to mention that on 17Nov1993 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) perpetrated "fraud on the court" in obtaining the denaturalization of Mr. Demjanjuk in 1981 and his extradition to Israel in 1986.]

However, in 2002, an immigration judge [Paul Matia] ruled that there was enough evidence to prove Mr Demjanjuk had been a guard at several Nazi death camps and again stripped him of his citizenship.

He lost an appeal against the decision in 2004.

Mr Demjanjuk has always insisted he was a prisoner of war with the Nazis, rather than a guard serving under them.

But his 2002 hearing found that he had been an armed guard at the Sobibor, Majdanek and Flossenburg concentration camps where tens of thousands of Jews were killed.

DEMJANJUK CASE TIMELINE
1951: Gains entry into the US, claiming he spent most of the war as a German prisoner
1977: First charged with war crimes, accused of being "Ivan the Terrible"
1981: Stripped of US citizenship
1986: Extradited to Israel
1993: Israeli Supreme Court overturns conviction, ruling that he is not Ivan the Terrible
1993: Sixth Circuit Court rules OSI perpetrated "fraud on the court"
1999: OSI initiates new denaturalization proceedings
2002: Loses US citizenship after a judge said there was proof he worked at Nazi camps
2005: A judge rules in favour of deportation to his native Ukraine