New trial?
July 16, 2011
John Demjanjuk, a convicted Nazi-era war criminal, could face fresh charges related to the time he allegedly spent as a concentration-camp guard in Bavaria, according to a German newspaper report.
The daily Tagesspiegel reported on Saturday, July 16, that the 91-year-old, Ukrainian-born convict, who was sentenced in May to five years in prison for his role in 28,000 murders at the Sobibor death camp in Poland, could face a new trial for similar crimes he may have committed as a guard at the Flossenbürg camp in Bavaria.
"There is a reasonable suspicion based on a report," senior prosecutor Gerhard Heindle was quoted as saying.
According to Tagespiegel, the latest allegations stem from two key figures in the Demjanjuk case - former investigating judge Thomas Walther and special prosecutor Cornelius Nestler.
They suggested Demjanjuk, along with another man, Alex N., may have been complicit in the murder of 4,974 people at Flossenbürg from October 1943 to December 1944.
Demjanjuk was a German prisoner of war when he began working in concentration camps.
After World War II, he immigrated to the United States and became a US citizen. He was first deported, to Israel, in 1986 for war crimes. Receiving a death sentence in 1988, the conviction was later overturned, and Demjanjuk returned to the US state of Ohio.
Demjanjuk was deported again in May 2009 to stand trial in Munich. His five-year sentence has been suspended, and he is currently living in a German nursing home.
Author: David Levitz (AP, dpa, AFP)
Editor: Toma Tasovac