US takes steps to deport alleged Nazi to
By M.R. KROPKO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
CLEVELAND (AP) The
U.S. government said Tuesday
it is asking German officials
for travel documents needed
to deport accused World War
II Nazi guard John Demjanjuk,
who is charged in Europe with
29,000 counts of accessory to
murder.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement provided an e-mail
to The Associated Press showing
that it has contacted the German
government in its effort to
deport Demjanjuk, once accused
but ultimately cleared of being a
notorious guard at the Treblinka
concentration camp in occupied
Poland.
The 88-year-old suburban
Cleveland man was charged in
Germany in March with crimes
Pakistan's
turmoil
BY NAHAL TOOSI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ISLAMABAD (AP)
Pakistan's supreme court chief
justice called for an end to
judicial corruption after returning
to bench for the first time in
16 months brought back to
resolve a political crisis that
showed the country's volatility
as the fight against terrorism
intensifies.
Judge Iftikhar Mohammed
Chaudhry also faced demands
Tuesday to investigate the
disappearance of hundreds of
people believed detained by
security forces since the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the
United States.
Chaudhry, hailed by supporters
as a fearless and independent
justice, was dismissed in late
2007 when then-President Pervez
Musharraf declared emergency
rule, angering lawyers who
protested and helped oust the
U.S.-backed military ruler in
2008. It was the second time
Musharraf had sought to oust
Chaudhry in 2007.
Musharraf's successor, Asif Ali
Zardari, had resisted demands to
reinstate Chaudhry, apparently
out of fears he may examine' a
deal that has provided Zardari
protection from prosecution on
while working as a guard at
Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in
Poland.
His son, John Demjanjuk Jr.,
said Tuesday that his father
remains at home and is not in
federal custody.
The German warrant seeks the
deportation or extradition of
Demjanjuk, who lives in Seven
Hills and denies involvement in
any deaths.
Prosecutors in Munich,
Germany, said Demjanjuk
(pronounced dem-YAHN'-yuk)
will be formally charged in front
of a judge once he is extradited.
"In this capacity, he participated
in the accessory to murder of
at least 29,000 people of the
Jewish faith," the prosecutor's
office has said. It is handling the
case because Demjanjuk spent
time at a refugee camp in the
area after the war.
top judge back after
corruption claims.
Zardari relented this month,
but only after thousands of
demonstrators led by Nawaz
Sharif, the head of the largest
opposition party, were preparing
to surround the parliament.
All sides in the dispute have
called for reconciliation in recent
days, which is likely to please the
United States and other Western
allies who want Pakistan to focus
on battling al-Qaida and the
Taliban.
Chaudhry has not said what his
priorities as chief justice will be.
At the start of his first hearing
Tuesday, Chaudhry thanked
Pakistanis for supporting him but
warned that the population often
viewed the courts as corrupt.
"Lawyers should help us end
corruption," he said. "You should
point out those cases in which
you see elements of corruption.
It is a must for justice to end
corruption first."
The judge is likely to face strong
scrutiny, especially in politically
sensitive cases like the fate of
several hundred people believed
detained during Musharrafs
rule.
The issue could prove
embarrassing to the United States
because some of the missing
may have been turned over to
American authorities. The U.S.
The suspect's family has said
he is in poor health and unable
to travel.
"My dad spent a few hours in
the emergency room the other
day," John Demjanjuk Jr. said.
"He is being treated for kidney
stones at present."
He said his father has chronic
kidney disease, along with other
serious ailments.
Kurt Schrimm, head of the
special German prosecutors'
office that has hunted Nazis
since 1958 and who asked
Munich prosecutors to pursue
Demj anjuk's extradition,
declined to comment Tuesday.
Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi
hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, a Los Angeles-based
human rights organization,
welcomed the development.
"We're very pleased that these
steps are being taken to facilitate
Embassy in Islamabad declined
comment.
The wife of one alleged victim,
Zahida Sharif, said she had
new hope that Chaudhry would
investigate the case of her
husband, a doctor who vanished
in 2005 in the northwest city of
Peshawar. She insisted he had no
political or militant connections.
"I just want him to be fair,"
Zahida Sharif said of Chaudhry.
Musharraf and officials in his
government acknowledged some
people had been detained, saying
it was necessary to combat
terrorism. Others, they said, had
probably joined militant groups
or were fighting or had been
killed in Afghanistan.
However, rights workers
said many of the missing were
nonviolent political activists. An
Amnesty International report last
year said more than 500 people
were thought to be detained.
The report noted that Supreme
Court pressure had led to some
releases.
Asma Jahangir, the head of
the independent Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan, said it
had been pushing for hearings
on the missing even before
Chaudhry's return.
"Hopefully now we will be
heard, whereas in the past we
were not being heard," she said.
Demjanjuk's extradition to
Germany so that he can be tried
and can be given an appropriate
punishment for his heinous
crimes during World War II,"
Zuroff told The Associated Press
by phone from Jerusalem.
German Justice Ministry
spokesman Ulrich Staudegle
said he could not confirm that
U.S. authorities had requested
any specific documents, but
reiterated that the German
government was working
closely with the U.S. to secure
Demjanjuk's extradition or
deportation.
Demjanjuk became a
naturalized U.S. citizen in 1958
and has never been convicted of
war crimes in a domestic court.
But a federal judge in Cleveland
in 2002 stripped him of his U.S.
citizenship, saying prosecutors
proved in a trial to determine his
Firefighter investigated in string
of Pa. arson
By PATRICK WALTERS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PHILADELPHIA (AP)
Investigators are trying to determine
if a firefighter charged with the
latest fires in an arson-plagued
suburb could be responsible for
any other unsolved blazes.
Robert Tracey Jr., of Coatesville,
was charged Monday with lighting
two small trash fires a few blocks
apart in his hometown on Friday.
The fires caused no injuries or
significant damage.
Tracey, 37, volunteered at the
city's West End Fire Company
for nearly 25 years, eventually
attaining the unpaid position of
assistant fire chief. He left that
post last month to become a paid
firefighter with the Coatesville Fire
Department.
He was jailed in lieu of $2 million
bail. His wife, Tracy Tracey, said
he had acknowledged being in the
area but denied setting the fires.
The West End Fire Company
assistant chief, Robert Pacana, was
dismayed by the charges.
"No words are sufficient at
conveying the anger, frustration
and disappointment that the
officers and members of the West
End Fire Company feel regarding
these allegations," Pacana said in a
statement. "Should Mr. Tracey be
found guilty of these charges in a
court of law, he will have betrayed
not only the trust of Company
but also the sacred trust of the
Germany
citizenship status that he served
the Nazi regime for more than
two years during World War II
as a guard
He was accused in 1977 of
concealing a past as a notorious
Nazi death camp guard known as
"Ivan the Terrible" at Treblinka.
He was extradited to Israel in
1986 and two years later was
sentenced to death after being
found guilty of war crimes and
crimes against humanity.
He appealed, and in 1993
Israel's top court ruled 5-0 that
Demjanjuk was not "Ivan the
Terrible." He was allowed to
return to the United States.
The chief U.S. immigration
judge ruled in 2005 that
Demjanjuk could be deported
to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.
The U.S. Supreme Court in May
declined to hear an appeal of the
deportation ruling.
community that he served."
Investigators with the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives are looking for any
possible links between Tracey and
other unsolved fires, according
to assistant special agent Tom
Stankiewicz. He said authorities
seized clothing and lighters from
Tracey's home, but were awaiting
further tests.
"Obviously, we did look into his
background," Stankiewicz said
Tuesday, adding that neighbors
spotted Tracey fleeing from the
scene over the weekend. "We're
trying to ascertain the motive."
Tracey's mother was forced out of
her home by a fire in December, but
Coatesville spokeswoman Kristin
Geiger said she didn't know why
he would be angry with the city.
"Arson itself is a difficult crime
to understand," Geiger said. "Our
firefighters are just as hurt as our
citizens."
Coatesville has had 22 arsons
this year and nearly 50 since
February 2008. One blaze in
January destroyed 15 houses, and
a December fire killed an 83-year
old woman. There have been nearly
20 arsons just outside the city.
At least six suspects have been
arrested in connection with the
fires. One suspect had been rejected
when he applied to be a firefighter
in a surrounding township.
Coatesville is a distressed former
steel town of 11,000 about 35 miles
west of Philadelphia.