U.S. judge stays Nazi (Demjanjuk) deportation

U.S. judge stays Demjanjuk deportation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. court on Friday blocked the deportation of accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk, two days before he was to have been sent to Germany to face charges in the deaths of 29,000 Jews.

“It appears there will be no deportation Sunday. The immigration judge granted our motion for stay of deportation,” John Demjanjuk Jr. said in an e-mail.

The order from Wayne Iskra, an immigration judge in Arlington, Virginia, said the stay would remain in effect until the question of whether his case should be reopened is decided.

Lawyers for the 89-year-old retired automobile industry worker, who lives near Cleveland, had asked for an emergency stay, saying Demjanjuk’s health was so poor he could not make the trip.

They said he had spinal problems, kidney failure, anemia, was very weak and needed help to stand up or move about.

The Ukraine native has denied any role in the Holocaust. He said he was drafted into the Russian army in 1941, became a German prisoner of war a year later and served at German prison camps until 1944.

He was sentenced to death in Israel in 1988 for being a sadistic guard “Ivan the Terrible” at Treblinka where 870,000 died. That country’s highest court later ruled he was not “Ivan” and he returned to the United States.

via U.S. judge stays Demjanjuk deportation | International | Reuters.