John Dem-janjuk, sentenced to death by an Israeli court for war crimes allegedly committed at the Treblinka death camp, began a hunger strike Monday to call attention to what he claims is his unjust treatment by the legal establishment.
Demjanjuk’s lawyer, Yoram Sheftel, told reporters here that his client will fast for three days to protest an unacceptable delay by the High Court of Justice in ruling on his appeal.
It has been nine months since the High Court concluded its hearings on his appeal of the District Court sentence, while this week marks the end of his seventh year in prison.
Sheftel claimed the delay is due to the fear of embarrassment by Israeli justice officials in having to concede that the man paraded before the world as “Ivan the Terrible” is a victim of mistaken identity.
“Everyone is more interested in face-saving than in getting (the real) Ivan Marchenko and hanging him,” he said, giving the name his defense team claims is that of the real “Ivan the Terrible.”
His hunger strike will help “center-stage the Demjanjuk affair” and make it “not too comfortable” to continue to withhold the decision, Sheftel said.
The attorney said the only task before the High Court is to determine whether there are reasonable doubts that Demjanjuk is Marchenko He said new documentation furnished by KGB officials from interviews with Ukrainians who served as guards in Treblinka make a determination in his client’s favor simple.
“There is not the slightest credible proof to dispute what Demjanjuk says,” said Sheftel, “that he had nothing to do with concentration camps.”
Sheftel said he was concerned about the delay because of Demjanjuk’s age, 73 next month. He suggested the court was putting off a ruling in the hope that he would die and the case would fade away. “Everyone (involved) will benefit from his death,” he said.
Several Nazi-hunters argue that even if the evidence casts doubt on Demjanjuk’s identity as Marchenko, there is evidence he is another war criminal, a former guard at Sobibor.
But Sheftel said Demjanjuk does not have to prove he was not at Sobibor. “He was specifically extradited to face charges he is ‘Ivan the Terrible,'” he said. “There is no way any other allegations are part of this” case.
Sheftel said if the court grants his appeal, the United States has to take him back under the terms of the extradition and that he wants to return to Cleveland, where he lived before being extradited to Israel in 1986.
No one at the Justice Ministry was available for comment on the case.
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