Circuit court stays Demjanjuk’s deportation

CLEVELAND (AP) — John Demjanjuk was released from federal custody Tuesday evening, just hours after six immigration officers removed the accused Nazi death camp guard from his suburban home in a wheelchair, authorities said.

Federal officials had taken Demjanjuk to a federal building in downtown Cleveland, but the 89-year-old retired autoworker’s impending return to Germany was halted when a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of deportation.

An arrest warrant in Germany claims Demjanjuk was an accessory to some 29,000 deaths during World War II at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Once in Germany, he could be formally charged in court.

Demjanjuk was driven to his home in Seven Hills after his release, former son-in-law and family spokesman Ed Nishnic said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement they’ll supervise him through electronic monitoring.

In granting the stay, the three-judge panel said it would further consider Demjanjuk’s motion to reopen the U.S. case that ordered the deportation, in which he says painful medical ailments would make travel to Germany torturous.

Citing the need to act because of the possibility of Demjanjuk’s imminent deportation, the court issued the stay without addressing the U.S. government’s argument that the court had no jurisdiction to rule on Demjanjuk’s appeal.

The government planned to continue its legal battle in court, said Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney.

Nishnic said the family was relieved the stay was granted.

“We’re delighted. We’re prepared to make our arguments with the 6th Circuit, and it’s just a shame that Mr. Demjanjuk had to go through the hell that he went through once again this morning,” he said as he walked into a federal building in Cleveland where Demjanjuk was being held.

Earlier Tuesday, Demjanjuk’s wife, Vera, sobbed and held her hands to her mouth as immigration officers loaded his wheelchair into a van at their home. As the van moved down the street, Vera turned and waved, sobbing in the arms of a granddaughter.

Several family members, including a 10-year-old grandson, were in the home when the officers removed Demjanjuk.

Nishnic said Demjanjuk, a native of Ukraine, told his family, “I love you,” in Ukrainian and was aware that the officers were there to take him to Germany.

Nishnic said his former father-in-law moaned in pain as he was placed in the wheelchair.

John Demjanjuk Jr., who filed the appeal with the 6th Circuit earlier Tuesday, said the government hadn’t lived up to earlier understandings of how his father would be removed.

“They told me that they would have an ambulance. They told me we would have three to five days’ notice, and obviously you can’t believe everything the government tells you,” he told The Associated Press by phone while headed back to Cleveland from the federal appeals court in Cincinnati.