John Demjanjuk back in Ohio home
The return of alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk, 89, to Germany for trial on war crimes was delayed again April 14 by a federal court, shortly after six immigration officers removed the retired autoworker from his suburban Cleveland home in a wheelchair. After an emotional departure from his family, he was taken to a federal building in Cleveland, a plane waiting not far away.
But the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay until it could further consider Demjanjuk’s motion to reopen the U.S. case that ordered him deported, in which he says painful medical ailments would make travel to Germany torturous. Demjanjuk was released from custody, and family members returned him to his home in Seven Hills, Ohio.
In recent months, Germany has sought his extradition on charges related to the deaths of 29,000 Jews. An Israeli court convicted Demjanjuk, a native of Ukraine, in 1988 of being the ruthless “Ivan the Terrible” at the Treblinka death camp. In 1993, Israel’s Supreme Court dismissed the charges and freed Demjanjuk because he could not be positively identified as “Ivan.”
John Demjanjuk Jr., who filed the appeal with the court, predicted his father would not survive long enough in Germany to stand trial. — ap
Serbia wants Nazi suspect from U.S.
Serbia will seek the extradition of a naturalized American who allegedly served in a Nazi unit that killed about 17,000 civilians during World War II, the Balkan country’s war crimes prosecutor said April 13.
Peter Egner, 87, who was born in Yugoslavia, is now living in a retirement community in Bellevue, Wash. Saying he failed to disclose details from his past on his naturalization application, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit in July 2008 to revoke his citizenship, a move that would pave the way for his extradition to Serbia.
Egner has denied the accusations, claiming he knows nothing about the Einsatzgruppe, a Nazi-run Serbian police unit that rounded up Jews, political prisoners and other enemies of the Third Reich in the wake of Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union in the early 1940s. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1960 and received citizenship in 1966. — ap
U.S., Israel holding big military exercise
The United States and Israel will hold a joint military exercise to test three missile defense systems, the Jerusalem Post reported this week.
The exercise, called Juniper Cobra, will be held in Israel later this year and will test the newly developed Arrow 2, as well as the U.S.’s THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and the ship-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.
According to Israeli defense officials, the purpose of the exercise is to create the infrastructure for joint U.S. missile defense systems in the event they are needed as a result of conflict with Iran. The United States and Israel regularly conduct joint military exercises, the Post reported. — jta
Former manager at Agriprocessors pleads guilty
Elizabeth Billmeyer, a former human resources manager at the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, has pleaded guilty to federal immigration charges.
Billmeyer pleaded guilty April 13 to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting false resident alien cards. The 48-year-old, who was arrested after a massive immigration raid at Agriprocessors, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. She remains free on bond and a sentencing date has not been set.
Federal agents arrested 389 people during a raid at the plant last May. — ap