US 'Nazi guard' faces deportation

BBC
Dec. 24, 2006

An 85-year-old man accused of having been a guard at a Nazi death camp has lost an appeal against his deportation from the US to his native Ukraine.

John Demjanjuk, who was ordered to be deported a year ago, can still make a further appeal against this ruling.

He has denied the allegations and his lawyers argued he would be tortured if sent back to Ukraine.

Mr Demjanjuk migrated to the US in 1951 and was briefly deported to Israel amid a 30-year legal battle over his past.

At the time, he was suspected of having been a notorious concentration camp guard, known by the nickname "Ivan the Terrible".

But his name was eventually cleared in an Israeli court and he was spared the death penalty.

Lack of evidence

The Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the 2005 deportation order which said there was no evidence to prove Mr Damjanjuk would be tortured if returned to the Ukraine.

"Simply put, the respondent's arguments regarding the likelihood of torture are speculative and not based on evidence in record," the board stated.

Mr Damjanjuk's lawyer, John Broadley said he was studying the ruling.

"What their reasoning is, we'll have to take a look at, and federal courts will have to look at it, too," he said.

His son, John Demjanjuk Jr, believed an appeal could still be made, adding: "We're not aware of any country offering to accept him from the United States."

The US Justice Department said efforts were continuing to remove him from the country as soon as possible.

Citizenship battle

Mr Demjanjuk returned to the US and his citizenship - which he had lost for allegedly lying to US immigration officials - was restored in 1998.

However, in 2002, an immigration judge ruled that there was enough evidence to prove Mr Demjanjuk had been a guard at several Nazi death camps and again stripped him of his citizenship.

He lost an appeal against the decision in 2004.

Mr Demjanjuk has always insisted he was a prisoner of war with the Nazis, rather than a guard serving under them.

But his 2002 hearing found that he had been an armed guard at the Sobibor, Majdanek and Flossenburg concentration camps where tens of thousands of Jews were killed.