Demjanjuk again escapes deportation for trial in Germany

A plane was waiting to fly alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk to Germany to face an arrest warrant and a possible war crimes trial. But the frail 89-year-old retired autoworker won a late reprieve from an appeals court Tuesday, and with it, another chance to argue that his deportation would amount to torture, given his medical condition.

Six immigration officers carried Demjanjuk in a wheelchair from his ranch home in suburban Cleveland on Tuesday. His mouth hung open, his head slumped back, and cameras clicked away to record the rare public appearance. Former son-in-law and family spokesman Ed Nishnic said Demjanjuk moaned in pain. His wife and family cried as they waved goodbye.

But within hours, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay until it could consider Demjanjuk's motion to reopen the U.S. case that ordered him deported. Demjanjuk was released from custody later Tuesday.

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. Once in Germany, he could be formally charged in court.

Demjanjuk denies involvement in any war crimes and has argued against deportation, saying he suffers from a bone marrow disorder, kidney disease, anemia, kidney stones, arthritis, gout and spinal deterioration.

Citing the need to act because of the possibility of Demjanjuk's imminent deportation, the U.S. appellate court issued the stay Tuesday without addressing the U.S. government's argument that the court had no jurisdiction to rule on Demjanjuk's appeal.

Demjanjuk, a native Ukrainian, has denied being a Nazi guard and claims he was a prisoner of war of the Germans. He came to the United States after the war as a refugee.

Demjanjuk had been tried in Israel after accusations surfaced that he was the notorious Nazi guard Ivan the Terrible in Poland at the Treblinka death camp. He was found guilty in 1988 of war crimes and crimes against humanity, a conviction later overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.