1989: A LOOK BACK: The Demjanjuk case (12/31/89)

1989: A LOOK BACK

The Demjanjuk case

As the year drew to a close, there was a major victory for the John Demjanjuk Defense Fund in its Freedom of Information Act suit against the Office of Special Investigations. On December 14, a federal judge ruled that two former government prosecutors must submit to depositions regarding their roles in questioning two prosecution witnesses in the denaturalization case filed by the OSI against Mr. Demjanjuk. Norman Moskowitz and John Horrigan were to submit to depositions, respectively, on December 27 and 28.

Meanwhile, Mr. Demjanjuk, who was convicted in April 1988 of Nazi war crimes and sentenced to death, continued his long wait in Ayalon Prison, as his final appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court was twice postponed this year. The appeal, which was to have been heard beginning on May 4 was first postponed to November 1 after his chief defense attorney, Yoram Sheftel, sought the delay due to his own ill health following a December 1988 attack by a Holocaust survivor who hurled acid in his face. Mr. Sheftel suffered an eye injury. In addition, Mr. Sheftel cited continuing difficulties in finding a defense lawyer to replace Dov Eitan, who apparently committed suicide in December of last year.

Then on September 13, the Supreme Court permitted another postponement when Mr. Sheftel argued that this was necessitated by newfound evidence in the United States.

The evidence consisted of pertinent documents found in a garbage bin at the Justice Department. Mr. Sheftel said the OSI was guilty of "concealing important evidence on the one hand and falsifying other evidence." The Israeli court granted a postponement and the appeal is now slated to be heard beginning on May 14, 1990.

In Washington, an Ohio congressman, James Traficant Jr., charged that the Justice Department may have deliberately withheld information that shows a key witness for the prosecution of Mr. Demjanjuk lied. Speaking at a press conference on August 2, Rep. Traficant said exculpatory information turned up among discarded documents in the Justice Department trash and called upon the department to reopen the case against Mr. Demjanjuk. In a letter to Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, the congressman asked him to authorize "an objective review" of the work done by the OSI on the Demjanjuk case.

Previously, Rep. Traficant had raised the Demjanjuk case twice on the floor of the House of Representatives, on June 20 and on July 18, citing various "irregularities" in the case.

Back in Israel, Mr. Sheftel's attacker, Yisrael Yehezkieli, was convicted on March 13 of aggravated assault and was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison, two years' probation and $11,000 in compensation to Mr. Sheftel. Mr. Yehezkieli appealed to the Supreme Court to reduce his sentence, arguing that it was excessive in view of his advanced age, but the court on September 25 rejected the appeal because it said the attack was premeditated and had caused bodily harm.

On November 16, Israel's High Court of Justice ruled that one of the country's largest newspapers, Yediot Aharanot, had violated the "sub judice" principle because its stories contained elements that in fact incriminated Mr. Demjanjuk of being "Ivan the Terrible." Coverage of the case, the court's majority opinion said, could be construed as an attempt to influence the court. The High Court also ordered the police to investigate to what extent criminal charges could be filed against the newspaper's reporter.

For the record, Mr. Demjanjuk turned 69 on April 3.

In related developments, a day-long seminar called "Ten Years of the OSI: Current Trends and Future Solutions," was sponsored in Washington by Americans for Due Process on April 29. Its participants were lawyers, representatives of ethnic organizations and activists concerned with due process. The seminar focused on the OCI's current cases, procedural and legal shortcomings, and use of Soviet-supplied evidence.

In mid-October, U.S. Attorney General Thornburgh signed an agreement on joint prosecution of Nazi war criminals with Procurator General Alexander Sukharev. The memorandum formalized the existing practice of cooperation in investigating and prosecuting suspects.

In Britain, a war crimes inquiry recommended on July 24 that British law be amended to provide for prosecution of Nazi war crimes in that country.

In late November, the Christian Science Monitor reported that Canada was investigating more than 200 war crimes suspects, and that Australia was looking into over 600 cases.

The Ottawa Citizen reported on December 6 that a team of investigators trom the RCMP and the Canadian Justice Department was in Lviv, Ukraine, searching for war crimes evidence. The group was reported to be one of several that have made regular trips to the USSR over the last year or so, interviewing witnesses and researching records.