A man accused of being a guard at a Nazi death camp during World War II has finally lost his legal fight to stay in the United States. John Demjanjuk, 88, migrated to the US in the 1950s. He was extradited to Israel and sentenced to death for war crimes, but the ruling was overturned. He returned to the US but was accused of lying on his immigration application about working for the Nazis. The US Supreme Court has now rejected his appeal against deportation. The BBC's Jack Izzard in Washington says it remains unclear whether any country is willing to take Mr Demjanjuk in - or prosecute him again. Torture claim The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by the retired Ohio car worker.
Mr Demjanjuk has always insisted he was a prisoner of war with the Nazis, rather than a guard serving under them. His lawyers have argued he would be tortured if sent back to Ukraine. Mr Demjanjuk was briefly deported to Israel amid a 30-year legal battle over his past. At the time, he was suspected of having been a notorious concentration camp guard, known by the nickname "Ivan the Terrible". But his name was eventually cleared in an Israeli court and he was spared the death penalty. In 2002, a US immigration judge ruled that there was enough evidence to prove Mr Demjanjuk had been a guard at several Nazi death camps and again stripped him of his citizenship. He lost an appeal against the decision in 2004. In December 2006, the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld a 2005 deportation order which said there was no evidence to prove Mr Demjanjuk would be tortured if he returned to Ukraine. |
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