An immigration appeals board ruled on Friday that retired autoworker John Demjanjuk can be deported to Germany to face charges that he served as a Nazi death camp guard during World War II.
Demjanjuk’s son, John Demjanjuk, Jr, said the family would appeal to the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The court closed on Friday without receiving a filing of appeal.
The board’s denial of an emergency stay of deportation makes it more likely Demjanjuk will soon be sent to face an arrest warrant claiming he was an accessory to some 29,000 deaths at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943. Once in Germany, he could be formally charged in court.
A German lawyer on Thursday appealed Demjanjuk’s pending arrest and requested that Munich prosecutors provide a copy of the arrest warrant and other documents so he can substantiate the details of the appeal. No action was expected before Tuesday.
Demjanjuk, a native Ukrainian, has denied involvement in any deaths, saying that he was a Russian soldier who was a prisoner of war, held by the Germans. He came to the US after World War II as a refugee. The 89-year-old Demjanjuk remained at his home near Cleveland on Friday afternoon. He had filed the US motion to the immigration board in Falls Church, Virginia, saying that he was in poor health and that being forced to travel to Germany would amount to torture.
He also asked the board to reopen the US case that ordered him deported. The board had not yet ruled on that request.
The US Department of Justice opposed his motions.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Pat Reilly would say only that officials would “remove him when the time is appropriate,” but she referred all other questions to the Department of Justice.
Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department’s special investigations unit, had no comment. Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said any response would come in court filings.
A phone message left with Demjanjuk’s US attorney, John Broadley, was not immediately returned.
Demjanjuk Jr arrived at his parents’ house in Seven Hills, Ohio, late on Friday morning, parked and entered without acknowledging members of the media who had gathered outside. After a short stay, he came out to his car and left, again without comment.
Demjanjuk has said he suffers severe spinal, hip and leg pain and has a bone marrow disorder, kidney disease, anemia, kidney stones, arthritis, gout and spinal deterioration.
In the German appeal, Busch said Demjanjuk was not fit for arrest, travel or trial because of post-traumatic stress disorder and serious illnesses, and that a trial could shorten his life because he has a kidney tumor that requires immediate chemotherapy.
He said Demjanjuk’s pain was so severe that it would impair his alertness and ability to concentrate on his defense. A video of a doctor sent by US immigration authorities to examine Demjanjuk at his home shows the elderly man crying out in pain, Busch noted. The video showed Demjanjuk getting in and out of bed.
Demjanjuk had been told to expect deportation last Sunday, but it was blocked by an immigration judge’s stay that expired on Wednesday.
He first gained US citizenship in 1958. It was revoked in 1981 based on Justice Department allegations that he had served as the notorious Nazi guard “Ivan the Terrible” in Poland at the Treblinka death camp.
He was extradited to Israel in 1986, and two years later he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He appealed and Israel’s Supreme Court in 1993 ruled that evidence indicated that Demjanjuk was not Ivan the Terrible and allowed him to return to the US.
His US citizenship was restored in 1998 but revoked again in 2002. The Justice Department renewed its case, arguing that he had served as a guard at Sobibor and other death or forced labor camps.
It no longer alleges he was Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka.
In 2005, an immigration judge ruled he could be deported to Ukraine, Poland or Germany.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was