Israel’s High Court of Justice will not hear John Demjanjuk’s appeal of his war crimes conviction and death sentence until next May.
The court was supposed to begin hearing the case Monday. But its president, Justice Meir Shamgar, agreed Wednesday to postpone the hearing until May 4, 1989, at the request of Demjanjuk’s defense attorney, Yoram Sheftel.
Sheftel must find a replacement for the late Dov Eitan, a member of the defense team who committed suicide Tuesday by jumping from the 15th floor of an office building in downtown Jerusalem.
Eitan, a respected former Jerusalem district court judge and former military court president, was an important asset for the defense.
He offered to help Demjanjuk’s appeal when the Ukrainian-born former U.S. citizen was sentenced to death last May, a week after he was found guilty of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, war crimes and murder.
Demjanjuk was identified at his trial as the Treblinka death camp guard known as “Ivan the Terrible,” who operated the gas chambers, where some 800,000 Jews perished.
The defense claims he is a victim of mistaken identity.
Eitan’s suicide could not be explained by his friends and associates. It is not known whether it had any connection with the Demjanjuk case.
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