News
from scape-goat case
ABCD
Munich
- John Demjanjuk's attorney Dr. Ulrich Busch Busch filed two motions Thursday for the
case against his client to be closed, arguing that the 89-year-old is not fit to stand trial,
his health has been deteriorating, he
could only have months to live (photo). Evidence against him is
shaky. He estimated that the trial could last two to four years, given the restrictions on sessions' length, the complexity of the evidence, and the fact that testimony will have to be translated into five languages to accommodate seven or eight people who have joined on as co-prosecutors as allowed under German
law.
Busch accused prosecutors of cherry-picking evidence to suit their
purposes. Among other things, he cited statements made by Ignat Danilchenko, a now-deceased Ukrainian who served in the Soviet Army and was exiled to Siberia following World War II.
In 1979, he told the KGB that he served with the Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk at Sobibor and that Demjanjuk
like all guards in the camp, participated in the mass killing of
Jews. Busch argued that German prosecutors in their indictment do not say that U.S. investigators
are of the opinion that the testimony of Danilchenko is not
trustworthy.
