The Trials of John Demjanjuk

John (Ivan) Demjanjuk died on 17 March 2012 with his presumption of innocence theoretically intact, because his conviction for his role in the Nazi death camp in Sobibor was still pending on appeal in German courts at the time.  For the last thirty-five years of his life, he was the subject of legal proceedings in the US, Israel, Germany, and Spain, who, in 2011, attempted to obtain jurisdiction over Mr. Demjanjuk for alleged crimes involving Spanish nationals in one the camps, where he was thought to have served as a guard.

A citizen of the US since 1958, Demjanjuk was first deported to stand trial in Israel in 1986.  In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court later quashed his conviction by the lower court when new evidence came to light that cast substantial doubt on his identity as Ivan the Terrible, last name Marchenko, the notorious gas chamber operator of Treblinka, Poland.  The Defence's case of mistaken identity survived evidence that, on Mr. Demjanjuk's entry papers to the United States, he had listed "Marchenko" as his mother's maiden name.  The Defence explained that Mr. Demjanjuk had forgotten her name, and simply guessed, pointing out that it was actually incorrect anyway (her maiden name was Tabachuk).  Although quashing the conviction for crimes on the indictment, the Supreme Court found that it was established that Demjanjuk participated in the extermination process in respect of other camps including Sobibor, to which the indictment did not extend.  A later attempt to re-open the case was rejected, one of the grounds given being the rule against double jeopardy.

In 2009, Demjanjuk was again deported, this time to face charges in Germany.  He was convicted in 2011, following an eighteen month trial for his role as former prisoner-of-war turned prison guard at the Sobibor death camp on the border of Belarus, Poland and Ukraine.   The Prosecution is said to have presented no evidence on specific crimes; it was enough that he was there, and that he did nothing.  

His death now draws to a close the final chapter of a long and convoluted story in international criminal law that is not just a little bit discomfiting.  The Economist's obituary of Mr. Demjanjuk can be found here.