02 January 2006
The American immigration board has ruled that John Demjanjuk, a former Soviet citizen believed to have served as a Nazi guard during the WWII, should be deported to Ukraine from the United States. Demjanjuk has argued that his life would be in danger if he was returned to his former home country. But the Board of Immigration Appeals stated that this claims was "speculative and not based on evidence in record". The 86-year-old Demjanjuk, who lives in Cleveland, has been accused of participating in various Nazi activities. In 1988, he was sentenced to death by an Israeli court who believed him to be the infamous SS guard Ivan the Terrible. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union KGB files revealed the case against Demjanjuk to have been falsified. However, it was later charged that he had indeed been involved in Nazi activates and Demjanjuk, who had lived in the US since 1952, had indeed been a Nazi guard but at the Sobibor camp in Poland. Last Thursday's decision followed a 2002 ruling that Demjanjuk be stripped of his US citizenship and deported. His appeal against the decision has now been rejected..
