EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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10Apr09
John Demjanjuk denied stay of deportation.
CLEVELAND --An immigration appeals court on Friday rejected John Demjanjuk's latest plea to stay in the United States.
The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals denied the 89-year-old's request for a reprieve from his deportation to Germany. The decision means federal agents can pick him up and send him overseas at any time.
"We will remove that individual when it is appropriate," said a spokesman for immigration agents.
In Germany, the Seven Hills retiree is expected to be charged as an accessory in the deaths of 29,000 Jews at the Sobibor extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where he worked as a 23-year-old guard. Federal judges in the United States ordered Demjanjuk deported because he lied about his Nazi past when he entered the country in 1952.
Demjanjuk, a native of Ukraine, has denied the allegations. He says that he was captured by the Germans in 1942 and forced to work in several prisoner-of-war camps.
Within hours of the Board of Immigration Appeals decision Friday, Demjanjuk's son, John Jr., said the family would appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"We will continue to do everything possible to stop this inhumane action," the younger Demjanjuk said in a statement.
The family says Demjanjuk suffers from chronic kidney disease and blood disorders, as well as severe pain in his legs and back. A video the family released shows Demjanjuk moaning in apparent pain as he is helped out of bed.
Demjanjuk's family sought to prevent the deportation last week, saying it would amount to torture. The claims of torture are pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.
A doctor retained by the government checked Demjanjuk last week and found him well enough to be deported, according to court records. A friend of Demjanjuk's said in an interview that he saw him outside his home this past winter.
Demjanjuk's case began in 1977, when he was first accused of being "Ivan the Terrible," a sadistic guard at the Treblinka death camp, also in Nazi-occupied Poland. He was extradited to Israel, convicted and sentenced to death before the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the conviction.
He came home, but a federal judge later found that he worked at Sobibor and other camps. He was ordered deported in 2005, although no country would accept him until Germany did earlier this year.
[Source: By John Caniglia, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, 10Apr09]
 | This document has been published on 12Apr09 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |