Demjanjuk sentenced to five years jail; photo - PAP/EPA/Andreas Gebert
A court in Munich has found John Demjanjuk guilty of acting as an accessory to murder of nearly 28,000 Jews at the Sobibor German Nazi death camp in occupied eastern Poland during World War II and has sentenced him to five years in prison.
Originally from Ukraine, the Soviet Red Army officer was captured by the Wehrmacht in 1942. According to investigators, Demjanjuk was trained as an SS camp guard by the German army, after which he voluntary took part in the mass execution of Jews.
“We welcome the verdict. It proves that Nazi war criminals can still be prosecuted many years after the crimes were committed,” Isreali historian Efraim Zuroff told thenews.pl (hear more of the comment below).
Defence attorneys sought to prove, however, that it was impossible to determine the authenticity of a Nazi ID card allegedly proving that Demjanjuk worked as a death camp guard.
His defence lawyers have announced they will appeal the verdict. (ab/pg/km)