Australia’s first full trial of an accused Nazi war criminal opened here last week but immediately fizzled when defense attorneys won a postponement.
Attorneys for Heinrich Wagner, 69, accused of war crimes in Ukraine, filed an application for a permanent stay in the proceedings.
They cited as grounds the fact that too much time had elapsed since the alleged crimes to mount a proper defense.
Meanwhile, Wagner entered a plea of not guilty to charges of murdering 124 people in Nazi-occupied Ukraine during World War II.
The prosecution accuses him of killing 19 children of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, participating in the mass murder of 104 Jewish adults and playing a role in the murder of a railway worker.
According to the prosecution, the offenses took place near the village of Izraylovka in the Ustinovka region of Ukraine between May 1, 1942 and Sept. 30, 1943.
Wagner, allegedly a member of the Nazi occupation police force, claims he was not present in the village when the offenses took places.
In September, an Australian magistrate accepted as evidence drawings by an artists who said he witnessed atrocities perpetrated by Wagner. The drawings were made after he had witnessed one of Wagner’s alleged murders.
Other witnesses claim they saw Wagner throw a child in the air and fire; saw Wagner in police uniform at that time; and saw the blood-splattered mass grave of the Jews of Ustinovka.
As one trial was put on hold, another was due to open.
Ivan Polyukhovich, who has also pleaded not guilty, is accused of personally murdering 24 individuals and complicity in the murders of 850 others.
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