(JTA) — The Supreme Court of Spain has indicted accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk on charges of accessory to genocide and crimes against humanity.
The court on Jan. 14 requested an international arrest warrant for Demjanjuk, who is accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard. The court issued the ruling a week earlier but did not make it public until Jan. 14.
Demjanjuk is accused of being responsible for the deaths of 50 of 155 Spanish prisoners in the German concentration camp Flossenburg. He is being charged in Spain under the country’s legal doctrine of universal jurisdiction, which allows it to try human rights crimes even if they did not take place on Spanish soil.
Demjanjuk, 90, a former Ohio autoworker, is currently being tried in Germany on charges of accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews in the Sobibor death camp in 1943.
The Spanish court has requested that Demjanjuk be extradited to Spain following his trial in Germany, according to reports.
Demjanjuk’s trial in Munich began on Nov. 30, but it has been postponed several times because of his ill health.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
