Judge orders Demjanjuk to appear in court

Associated Press

MUNICH

A German judge for the first time ordered John Demjanjuk to appear in court after the 90-year-old’s health issues caused the cancellation of sessions in his trial over allegations that he was a guard at the Nazis’ Sobibor death camp.

Two sessions last week were called off, the last of them when the defendant suffered dehydration in hot weather, but Demjanjuk, a resident of Seven Hills near Cleveland, appeared Thursday at the Munich state court.

Judge Ralph Alt said he had informed the former Ohio autoworker Wednesday that he was being ordered to attend. He did not elaborate.

Demjanjuk, as he has for most of his trial, followed the hearing from a bed in the courtroom and showed no reaction to the proceedings.

Demjanjuk, who was deported from the U.S. to Germany in May 2009, is being tried on 28,060 counts of accessory to murder.

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