- CLEVELAND (Reuters) - John
Demjanjuk, a retired auto worker once thought to be the sadistic Nazi death
camp guard "Ivan the Terrible", can be deported back to his native
Ukraine, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday.
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- Chief U.S. Immigration Judge Michael Creppy ruled that
Demjanjuk would not likely face prosecution if he were sent from the United
States to Ukraine, Germany or Poland and ordered his removal.
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- Demjanjuk, 85, had appealed to the Immigration Court
for relief from a previous ruling from Creppy that he could be deported.
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- Demjanjuk claimed that he could be charged, prosecuted
or face torture if he were sent back to Ukraine. The U.S. government argued
that Demjanjuk had not shown that any such treatment was likely.
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- Demjanjuk was found guilty of lying to gain entry to
the United States.
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- Demjanjuk, whose case has been in U.S. courts for three
decades, lives in the Cleveland, Ohio, area.
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- A federal judge previously revoked Demjanjuk's U.S. citizenship
on multiple grounds, including his "willing" service in a unit
"dedicated to exploiting and exterminating" Jewish civilians
in Nazi-occupied Poland.
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- In 2002, following a trial, a federal judge in Ohio ruled
that the government had proved that Demjanjuk was an armed guard at Sobibor,
Majdanek and Flossenburg concentration camps.
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- A federal appeals court affirmed the decision and the
case was then brought before the immigration judge to approve deportation.
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- Demjanjuk has denied he was ever a World War II death
camp guard, saying he was in the Soviet Army but spent much of the war
as a German prisoner.
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