Demjanjuk Trial Begins in Germany
VOA News 30 November 2009
Suspected former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk is on trial in Germany Monday, in what is likely to be one of the last major Nazi-era war crimes trials.
Demjanjuk appeared in a wheelchair before a full courtroom in the southern German city of Munich.
Medical experts have judged him fit to stand trial, but his family says he is suffering from serious health problems. The hearings will be restricted to two 90-minute sessions per day due to his weak condition.
German prosecutors have charged the Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk with assisting in the murders of nearly 28,000 Jews at the Sobibor concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
The 89-year-old former U.S. auto worker has denied the charges, insisting he was a German prisoner of war and not a guard. If convicted, he could be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.
The United States deported Demjanjuk to Germany in May after losing a long court fight over his extradition.
In the 1980s, the U.S. extradited Demjanjuk to Israel, where he was sentenced to death on charges that he was "Ivan the Terrible," a notoriously sadistic guard at the Sobibor death camp.
Israel's Supreme Court overturned his death sentence when new evidence raised doubts that he was Ivan the Terrible. Demjanjuk returned to the United States in 1993.
Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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