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Spain judge indicts alleged Nazi guards

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

[JURIST] A Spanish judge on Thursday indicted three alleged former Nazi guards for crimes against humanity and genocide. Judge Ismael Moreno issued arrest warrants for US residents Johann Leprich and Anton Tittjung and Austrian resident Josias Kumpf. The three allegedly participated in the torture and disappearance of more than 4,300 Spaniards at the Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen and Flossenburg concentration camps. A Spanish prosecutor asked in May that arrest warrants be issued under Spain's universal jurisdiction doctrine, which gives Spain jurisdiction over foreign torture, terrorism, and war crimes only if the case is not subject to the legal system of the country involved. The prosecutor did not seek a warrant for a fourth suspect, John Demjanjuk, who is currently awaiting trial as an accessory to murder in Germany for his involvement at the Sobibor camp. The suit was initiated in June 2008 by rights group Equipo Nizkor, which petitioned Spain's National Court to press charges against the four accused guards. Demjanjuk, 89, has fought a lengthy legal battle over his alleged involvement with Nazi death camps during World War II. He was deported to Germany earlier this month, after the US Supreme Court denied his stay of deportation.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).