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Sixth Circuit denies stay of deportion for accused Nazi guard

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied a stay of deportation for accused Nazi prison guard John Demjanjuk. Last month, the court granted a stay of deportation to consider Demjanjuk's appeal of an order by the Board of Immigration Appeals that denied his emergency stay of deportation. Demjanjuk faces deportation to Germany, where in March a Munich district court charged him with 29,000 counts of accessory to murder for his alleged involvement at the Sobibor concentration camp. Lawyers for Demjanjuk, 89, had argued that deporting him to Germany would amount to torture. In denying Demjanjuk's request for a stay of deportation, the court reasoned:Based on the medical information before the court and the government's representations about theconditions under which it will transport the petitioner, which include an aircraft equipped as a medical air ambulance and attendance by medical personnel, the court cannot find that the petitioner's removal to Germany is likely to cause irreparable harm sufficient to warrant a stay of removal.Demjanjuk may now petition for an en banc rehearing or appeal to the US Supreme Court. Demjanjuk has fought a lengthy legal battle over his alleged involvement with Nazi death camps during World War II. In 2008, the US Supreme Court denied certiorari in Demjanjuk v. Mukasey, ending the appeals process for his deportation order. Demjanjuk was appealing a 2005 ruling by then-US Chief Immigration Judge Michael Creppy which ordered his deportation. Demjanjuk had previously lost his appeal to the BIA. Additionally, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied Demjanjuk's petition for review in January 2008. In 1988, Demjanjuk was convicted and sentenced to death by an Israeli court which found that he was a notorious guard from Treblinka nicknamed "Ivan the Terrible." The sentence was vacated by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1993, and Demjanjuk returned to the US.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 01, 2009 (boomark / email).