June 15, 2011
German court rejects Demjanjuk extradition request
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A German court denied a request to extradite John Demjanjuk to Spain to stand trial on charges of being an accessory to genocide and crimes against humanity.
In denying the extradition request on June 9, the Munich court questioned Spain’s jurisdiction in the case and also noted that the evidence presented against Demjanjuk was incomplete.
The Supreme Court of Spain had indicted Demjanjuk, 91, in January and requested an international arrest warrant for the former Cleveland-area autoworker.
Demjanjuk was accused of being responsible for the deaths of 50 of 155 Spanish prisoners in the German concentration camp Flossenburg. He was charged in Spain under the country’s legal doctrine of universal jurisdiction, which allows Spain to try human rights crimes even if they did not take place on Spanish soil.
In May, Demjanjuk was found guilty in a Munich court of being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews in the Sobibor concentration camp. He was sentenced to five years in prison but remains free in a nursing home facility as his appeal moves forward.
