Failed appeal
October 21, 2009
The Federal Constitutional Court said on Wednesday that it had rejected complaints from Demjanjuk's lawyer, Ulrich Busch, against plans to open the trial in Munich at the end of November and to keep the 89-year-old suspect in custody until then.
Busch had based his request on Demjanjuk's ailing health, saying the 89-year-old was unfit to stand trial.
After the end of World War II, the Ukrainian-born Demjanuk settled in the United States. He was deported to Germany last May after losing a long legal battle to avoid standing trial.
Demjanjuk maintains that he is innoncent of the 29,000 counts of accesory to murder with which he is charged.
He claims he harmed nobody during the Nazi regime and that he was a Red Army soldier held as a prisoner of war by the Germans.
glb/Reuters/dpa
Editor: Chuck Penfold