Ivan Demjanjuk trial delayed until December 21

MUNICH (WJC)– The trial of suspected Nazi death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk has been suspended until 21 December because the defendant is too sick to come to court, according to doctors. The 89-year-old Ukrainian is charged of being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor death camp.

Judge Ralph Alt said in a court statement that Demjanjuk had a high fever which had continued to rise despite medication. Doctors who examined him, two hours before the court hearing in Munich was about to continue, said he had an unidentified infection and a fever.

Demjanjuk’s lawyers have repeatedly called for the trial to be abandoned because of their client’s ill health. He is believed to have a serious bone marrow disease. The trial is limited to just two 90-minute sessions a day, and Demjanjuk has spent much of the time so far under a blanket on a hospital stretcher. The trial is expected to last until May 2010.

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, expressed his frustration with the delay. “He should have gone to Hollywood, not Sobibor,” he said.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress