Accused war criminal John Demjanjuk was ordered remanded in custody for a further 15 days by Jerusalem Chief Magistrate Aharon Simcha, sitting in a make-shift courtroom at the Ayalon Prison in Ramle last Friday.
Demjanjuk, 65, the former Ukrainian extradited to Israel from the United States last month, is suspected of being the notorious prison guard, “Ivan the Terrible,” at the Treblinka concentration camp during the Holocaust.
Simcha said that there was sufficient evidence to warrant holding Demjanjuk in prison pending his trial. His statement came after he had asked police prosecutor Alex Ish-Shalom to comment on media reports that the Treblinka prison guard known as “Ivan the Terrible” had been killed during an in mate uprising at the death camp.
Ish-Shalom described the reports as imaginary, saying that no single person had come forward with proof that he himself had taken part in the killing of the prison guard or had been an actual eye-witness to his alleged death.
“It is all hearsay evidence — and we have adequate proof to the contrary — that Demjanjuk is indeed the notorious Ivan,” the police official asserted.
Demjanjuk, asked if he had anything to say, protested that the proceedings were being carried out in Hebrew and that he had to rely on interpretation. The judge promised him that a translation of the full transcript of the proceedings would be made available to his attorney.
Demjanjuk’s attorney in the U.S., Mark O’Connor, was present in the courtroom but did not participate in the hearing, as he has not yet received permission to plead before an Israeli court.
The Israel Bar Association has agreed to O’Connor’s active appearance in court in view of his lengthy service for his client before U.S. courts, and the fact that it might be difficult to find an experienced Israeli lawyer ready to defend a man charged with war crimes against Jews. The Justice Ministry is to act shortly on O’Connor’s request to represent his client in court.
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.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
