Friday, April 17, 2009
CLEVELAND (AP) — A U.S. appeals court wants to see details of a medical report indicating that John Demjanjuk, who is wanted in Germany to face accusations he served as a Nazi death camp guard, is healthy enough to make that trip from Ohio safely.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is Demjanjuk’s current legal avenue in his effort not to be deported.
The Cincinnati-based appeals court halted his deportation Tuesday with an emergency order shortly after immigration officers carried him moaning from his home in a wheelchair to start him on his journey to Germany.
He was detained in a holding area of the Cleveland offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement but was allowed to return to his suburban Cleveland home a few hours later. The appeals court’s deportation stay remains in effect.
On Thursday, the appeals court said the Department of Justice must provide a copy of the doctor’s report used to determine Demjanjuk is healthy enough to travel. It also asked for the government’s plans for taking Demjanjuk to Germany.
The court wants Demjanjuk’s lawyers to answer the government’s claim that the issue is deportation and that the appeals court lacks jurisdiction. The Department of Justice said it believes the Board of Immigration Appeals, which last week denied Demjanjuk an emergency stay and Thursday denied a request to reopen his case, is the final authority in deportation cases.
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.