Suspected Nazi guard Demjanjuk faces deportation

[May 11, 2009]  BERLIN (AP) -- Suspected Nazi guard John Demjanjuk, who has been ordered to surrender to U.S. immigration authorities in Ohio, is expected to be deported to Germany by Tuesday, a German Justice Ministry spokesman said Monday.

Demjanjuk is wanted on a Munich arrest warrant that accuses him of 29,000 counts of accessory to murder at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp. Demjanjuk rejects the allegation, maintaining he was held by the Germans as a Soviet prisoner of war and was never a camp guard.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement served him with a notice Friday asking him to surrender, one day after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal against deportation.

It is now expected that he will arrive in Munich on Tuesday, said Justice Ministry spokesman Ulrich Staudigl.

Once in Germany, Demjanjuk will be brought before a judge and formally charged. He will also be given the opportunity to make a statement to the court, in keeping with normal justice procedure, Staudigl said.

Demjanjuk's family has been battling against the deportation, saying the 89-year-old is in poor health and might not survive the trans-Atlantic journey.

Once in Germany, Demjanjuk is expected to be held in the medical unit of a Munich prison. The government has said that preparations have already been made at the facility to ensure that he will receive the appropriate care.

Demjanjuk was previously tried in Israel after accusations surfaced that he was the notorious Nazi guard "Ivan the Terrible" at the Treblinka death camp in Poland.

He was found guilty in 1988 of war crimes and crimes against humanity but the conviction was later overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.

A U.S. judge revoked his citizenship in 2002 based on U.S. Justice Department evidence showing he concealed his service at Sobibor and other Nazi-run death and forced-labor camps.

An immigration judge ruled in 2005 he could be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine. Munich prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him in March.

[Associated Press; By MELISSA EDDY]

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