Demjanjuk aims to clear name, son says

He plans to appeal a judge's order that would send him back to Ukraine.
SEVEN HILLS, Ohio (AP) -- The ailing 85-year-old retired autoworker who is accused of being a Nazi death camp guard wants to keep fighting a decades-old battle to restore his reputation and remain in the United States, his son said Thursday.
John Demjanjuk, who is in frail health, understands that a ruling Wednesday for deportation puts him closer to the end of the legal battle that began in the 1970s. But Demjanjuk's son told The Associated Press that his father won't give up.
"Oh sure, he's aware of what's happening and what is going on, but he lived in solitary confinement in a cell for seven years. He's not an angry person. He's always had the outlook this was going to be a long and difficult fight," John Demjanjuk Jr. said.
At his father's home in the Cleveland suburb of Seven Hills, the younger Demjanjuk refused to allow a reporter to speak with his parents.
The elder Demjanjuk, once suspected of being the notoriously brutal guard known as Ivan the Terrible, plans to appeal Judge Michael Creppy's deportation order that would send him to his native Ukraine, his lawyer, John Broadley, said Thursday.
Broadley acknowledged that the ruling is the judge's final order in the case that dates back to 1977.
Judge Creppy said there was no evidence to substantiate Demjanjuk's claim that he would be tortured if deported to his homeland. He said Demjanjuk should be deported to Germany or Poland if Ukraine does not accept him.
Accusations
Demjanjuk, who came to the United States in 1952, lost his U.S. citizenship after a judge ruled in 2002 that documents from World War II prove he was a Nazi guard at various death or forced labor camps.
In 1977, the government accused him of being Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka concentration camp. In 1986, Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel, where he was convicted and sentenced to death after a dramatic, televised trial. But after a five-year legal battle, the conviction was thrown out when the Israeli Supreme Court found in 1993 that someone else apparently was Ivan the Terrible.
Demjanjuk returned to the United States, and his U.S. citizenship was restored before being lifted again.
The current case is based on evidence uncovered by the Justice Department alleging he was a different guard, which Demjanjuk denies.