US visa appeal denied to accused former Nazi guard
May 11 2009 by Robbie Ragless
Alleged Nazi guard John Demjanjuk
US immigration authorities have rejected a bid by alleged Nazi guard John Demjanjuk to keep his American visa.
Demjanjuk, who moved to America in 1952, has appealed against his deportation to Germany claiming he was never a Nazi guard but was instead held by the Germans as a Soviet prisoner of war.
89-year-old Demjanjuk, who is a native of Ukraine, also said he was too ill to be moved. He asked the US Supreme Court to hear his case but his request was rejected.
Instead, US immigration agents have issued him with a notice to surrender to an immigration office in Cleveland, Ohio.
An arrest warrant in Munich accuses Demjanjuk of 29,000 counts of accessory to murder at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.
Demjanjuk’s lawyer in Germany, Ulrich Busch, challenged the Munich arrest warrant on Friday, citing 1979 testimony given by a Sobibor camp guard, who says he does not remember Demjanjuk from either Sobibor or a training camp where he is also alleged to have served.
Busch, however, conceded there was nothing that could be done from Germany to prevent US immigration officals from deporting Demjanjuk.
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