Justice Department Appeals Ruling on Demjanjuk’s Return

The U.S. Justice Department has appealed a federal appeals court’s ruling that John Demjanjuk must be allowed to return to the United States in the wake of his acquittal in Israel of war crimes charges.

On Monday, the appellate section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division asked the 14 judges of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati for an “en banc” review of a ruling last week by a three-judge panel of the court.

The smaller panel’s Aug. 3 ruling came after only 10 minutes of deliberation.

The 73-year-old retired Cleveland autoworker was found guilty in April 1988 by an Israeli court of being the brutal Treblinka guard known as “Ivan the Terrible” and was sentenced to death.

On July 29, Israel’s Supreme Court overturned the sentence on the grounds that there were reasonable doubts that Demjanjuk and “Ivan” were the same man.

The court ruled at the time not to try Demjanjuk on other charges.

It has since received three petitions asking that he be tried on other charges.

The Israeli high court is scheduled to hear arguments about a possible retrial this Wednesday.

In Washington, the Justice Department’s petition was hailed by Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime and criminal justice, and by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.). Both of them last week had urged Attorney General Janet Reno to appeal the Cincinnati court’s decision.

In a statement, Schumer called the department’s effort to block Demjanjuk’s return “legally and morally correct.”

“The fact that an Israeli court ruled that it cannot be proved Demjanjuk was a particular guard at the Treblinka death camp should not affect the fact that he was a Nazi death camp guard elsewhere,” said Schumer.

Substantial proof has been provided that Demjanjuk was trained at the Trawniki camp for SS guards and served at the Sobibor, Flossenburg and Regensburg camps.

ACQUITTAL HAD ‘A DAMAGING EFFECT’

“Today’s action sends a strong signal that former Nazis are not welcome in the United States,” Lowey said in a statement of her own.

Meanwhile, the World Jewish Congress office in Israel filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court against deporting Demjanjuk and called for his trial as a Nazi guard at Sobibor.

Avi Beker, executive director of the WJC office in Israel, said the latest petition marked a “turning point” because it was filed by an umbrella organization representing more than 80 communities worldwide.

The WJC petition, filed Monday, is based on the premise “that the failure to prosecute Demjanjuk here is a breach of international law,” Beker said in Israel.

He said he had been flooded with calls from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors in different communities who said the acquittal had been perceived as a vindication of Demjanjuk.

“This has had quite a damaging effect,” said Beker. “It is major blow to the (status) of Nazi crimes as crimes against humanity.”

In addition, the WJC issued a statement claiming that Demjanjuk’s lawyers withheld evidence from the Israeli Supreme Court.

WJC said that the testimony of a Ukrainian woman who had identified Demjanjuk as a Treblinka guard was never turned over to the Israeli high court.

The testimony of Melaniia Nezdiimyonha was taken by Demjanjuk’s son in Ukraine in 1991, WJC said. Nezdiimyonha worked in the Treblinka kitchen in 1943.

WJC’s petition was signed by Matityahu Drobles, chairman of the Israeli Executive of the WJC.

In addition, a friend-of-the-court brief to the WJC petition was presented by Professor Irwin Cotler of McGill University in Montreal, in his capacity as president of Interamicus, a human rights organization.

Harvard law Professor Alan Dershowitz and Washington lawyer Nathan Lewin were legal advisers to the WJC on the petition, which was submitted through the office of Israeli attorney Yehuda Raveh.

The WJC petition was the third to be filed in the case. Two other petitions were filed by the right-wing Kach movement and by survivors of Sobibor in conjunction with the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

(Contributing to this report was JTA correspondent Cynthia Mann in Jerusalem.)