Israel Matzav: On John Demjanjuk

On John Demjanjuk

A German court convicted former Nazi concentration camp guard John Demjanujuk of 30,000 murders on Thursday, sentenced him to five years in jail… and then released him.

Pending an appeal from Demjanjuk’s attorney, Ulrich Busch, and the court’s statement that there was no compelling reason to keep him in jail until the sentence could be legally imposed, Judge Ralph Alt declared, “The defendant is released.”

Demjanjuk is not deemed at risk of fleeing Germany because of his age and the fact that he is stateless, Alt said.

The five-year sentence cannot be implemented until the appeal process is exhausted.

In a signal that Demjanjuk may not serve the entire term, or even any of it, even if his appeal fails, Alt said that an incarceration period of five years is “not commensurate” with such an elderly defendant.

Demjanjuk has been in German jail for two years.

“It doesn’t seem likely that Demjanjuk will actually serve any more time in the end. The appeal will take at least a year and at that time his health may not allow putting him in prison,” Alt told journalists after the court ruling.

Demjanjuk cannot return to the United States because the US government stripped him of his citizenship in 2002.

How many of Demjanjuk’s victims were spared because they were elderly and/or stateless? What a load of hogwash. Those who are kind to the cruel end up being cruel to the kind.

Israel Matzav: On John Demjanjuk