Demjanjuk Loses Bid to Halt Nazi Death Camp Trial (Update2) Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Karin Matussek
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- A Munich court rejected requests by John Demjanjuk’s lawyers to halt a trial over charges that he aided in the murder of 27,900 Jews during World War II.
The court threw out a motion claiming Demjanjuk isn’t healthy enough to endure the two daily sessions of hearings scheduled during the trial. The defense wrongly claims its client is degraded into a “mere object of the proceedings,” Presiding Judge Ralph Alt said when delivering the ruling.
It’s Demjanjuk’s “own decision not to address the court and to not even deign to look at it -- contrary to his behavior outside of the courtroom,” Alt said. The court respects his habit “but it cannot infer from it that he can’t stand trial or that the case must be dropped for any other reason.”
The Munich trial against Demjanjuk, who’s accused of working as a guard at the Sobibor extermination camp in German- occupied Poland in 1943, has been closely watched. Images of Demjanjuk brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, televised around the globe when the trial started, have stirred debate on whether an 89-year-old should be tried more than 65 years after the alleged actions.
Today’s hearing was canceled after Demjanjuk felt dizzy and was diagnosed with low levels of hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen in the blood.
Demjanjuk, who now attends most hearings lying on a stretcher, is regularly treated in a hospital where he gets blood infusions, according to his lawyer, Ulrich Busch.
Medical Problems
“His confirmed medical problems causing him to be weak, dizzy and now requiring his sixth blood transfusion since arriving in Germany are in total conflict with the medical decision and the court’s comments about him being fit for trial,” Demjanjuk’s son, John Demjanjuk Jr., said in a statement e-mailed after today’s decision.
The court also rejected a defense motion claiming German law isn’t applicable because the alleged actions didn’t happen in Germany and the guards weren’t German public officials.
The court has jurisdiction because some of the camp’s victims were Germans, said Alt. The guards could be considered as soldiers or public officers, which allows Germany to prosecute them even if Sobibor would have to be deemed beyond its territory at the time, the judge said.
Doctors haven’t found any reasons indicating Demjanjuk can’t stand the two 90-minute sessions scheduled for each day of trial, said Alt. His health is checked continuously when he’s attending hearings or is transported from his prison to the court, according to Alt.
“He’s indeed following the hearings mostly motionless and with eyes shut,” Alt said. “But there is no indication he isn’t able to follow mentally.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Karin Matussek in Munich via kmatussek@bloomberg.net
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Oh man ,what a way to "retire" .
By Karin Matussek
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- A Munich court rejected requests by John Demjanjuk’s lawyers to halt a trial over charges that he aided in the murder of 27,900 Jews during World War II.
The court threw out a motion claiming Demjanjuk isn’t healthy enough to endure the two daily sessions of hearings scheduled during the trial. The defense wrongly claims its client is degraded into a “mere object of the proceedings,” Presiding Judge Ralph Alt said when delivering the ruling.
It’s Demjanjuk’s “own decision not to address the court and to not even deign to look at it -- contrary to his behavior outside of the courtroom,” Alt said. The court respects his habit “but it cannot infer from it that he can’t stand trial or that the case must be dropped for any other reason.”
The Munich trial against Demjanjuk, who’s accused of working as a guard at the Sobibor extermination camp in German- occupied Poland in 1943, has been closely watched. Images of Demjanjuk brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, televised around the globe when the trial started, have stirred debate on whether an 89-year-old should be tried more than 65 years after the alleged actions.
Today’s hearing was canceled after Demjanjuk felt dizzy and was diagnosed with low levels of hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen in the blood.
Demjanjuk, who now attends most hearings lying on a stretcher, is regularly treated in a hospital where he gets blood infusions, according to his lawyer, Ulrich Busch.
Medical Problems
“His confirmed medical problems causing him to be weak, dizzy and now requiring his sixth blood transfusion since arriving in Germany are in total conflict with the medical decision and the court’s comments about him being fit for trial,” Demjanjuk’s son, John Demjanjuk Jr., said in a statement e-mailed after today’s decision.
The court also rejected a defense motion claiming German law isn’t applicable because the alleged actions didn’t happen in Germany and the guards weren’t German public officials.
The court has jurisdiction because some of the camp’s victims were Germans, said Alt. The guards could be considered as soldiers or public officers, which allows Germany to prosecute them even if Sobibor would have to be deemed beyond its territory at the time, the judge said.
Doctors haven’t found any reasons indicating Demjanjuk can’t stand the two 90-minute sessions scheduled for each day of trial, said Alt. His health is checked continuously when he’s attending hearings or is transported from his prison to the court, according to Alt.
“He’s indeed following the hearings mostly motionless and with eyes shut,” Alt said. “But there is no indication he isn’t able to follow mentally.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Karin Matussek in Munich via kmatussek@bloomberg.net
_____________________________________________________________________
Oh man ,what a way to "retire" .
