Flurry of objections delays Demjanjuk trial (1st Lead)

Dec 1, 2009, 11:00 GMT

  Munich - Defence lawyers filed a flurry of objections Tuesday at the war-crimes trial of John Demjanjuk, 89, but the German court said it would delay considering the complaints and proceed to hearing the formal charges.

Germany accuses Ukraine-born Demjanjuk of being an accessory to the gas-chamber murders of 27,900 Jews at Sobibor death camp in 1943.

Ulrich Busch, the lead defence attorney, said the trial was illegal because Demjanjuk had faced similar charges 1986-93 in Israel and these ended in acquittal. He said German law banned 'double jeopardy,' or two trials on the same facts.

Busch moved for the trial to be abandoned. The lawyer also contended Germany's custody of his stateless client was illegal because Demjanjuk had been forcibly expelled from the United States to Germany although he was suffering from a 'terminal illness.'

   Demjanjuk, who has a bone-marrow disorder, has appeared in court slouched in a wheelchair or on a stretcher, keeping his eyes shut and complaining of pain. He has made no verbal comment since the trial began Monday.

Presiding judge Ralph Alt said the court would rule on the objections later and would first hear the 86-page indictment, which could not be read aloud on the trial's first day, Monday, because of defence motions.

Israel accused Demjanjuk of having been a sadistic Ukrainain guard nicknamed Ivan the Terrible at a different death camp, Treblinka. Israeli judges cancelled a death sentence and freed him to return to the United States after finding this was probably mistaken identity.

   Another objection from Busch argued that the defence must first research files in Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Israel. Busch also said Germany had no jurisdiction over his client because Demjanjuk had never held any German official position.