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CRIME

No live eyewitnesses left for Nazi guard trial

The trial of alleged mass murderer John Demjanjuk, due to start on November 30 in Munich, will take place without any eyewitnesses, it emerged this weekend.

Published: 22 November 2009 10:29 CET
No live eyewitnesses left for Nazi guard trial
Demjanjuk's ID card from 1948. Photo: DPA

Weekly magazine Focus reported that although 23 witnesses had been named, and five from Russia and Ukraine had been expected, they are long-dead.

Demjanjuk is accused of assisting in 27,900 murders during his time as a guard in the Sobibor concentration camp in what was then Poland, during 1943.

His defence lawyer Günther Maull told the magazine witness statements had been produced, but added, “The men were questioned 30 years ago – at least in part in the Soviet Union and possibly under pressure. Whether their statements have any value as evidence is questionable.”

Demjanjuk emigrated to the USA after the end of the war, and fought extradition to Germany. His family argued that his ill health should preclude a trial.

He was sentenced to death by an Israeli court two decades ago after he was convicted of being the feared death camp guard known as “Ivan the Terrible” who would hack at naked prisoners with a sword and inflict cruel and sadistic punishments.

That ruling was overturned in 1993 when statements from other guards identified another man as “Ivan.”

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CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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