Israel Indicts Demjanjuk in ‘Ivan the Terrible’ Case : Charged With War Crimes Against Jews

Israel today indicted retired U.S. auto worker John Demjanjuk on charges of personally causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews as a Nazi death camp guard called “Ivan the Terrible” during World War II.

Demjanjuk’s trial, not expected to begin before late December, will be the first of an alleged war criminal in Israel since Adolf Eichmann was convicted 25 years ago for masterminding the slayings of 6 million Jews during World War II. Eichmann was hanged.

The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk, 66, was charged in a 26-page indictment with “crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes against minorities.”

Demjanjuk, formerly of Cleveland, is accused of being the sadistic guard “Ivan the Terrible” at the Treblinka camp in Nazi-occupied Poland where at least 900,000 people, mostly Jews, were killed.

Ed Nishnic, Demjanjuk’s son-in-law in Cleveland, said today the family expected the charges because of an Oct. 1 deadline set by an Israeli judge. “We had been informed that they would charge Mr. Demjanjuk whether they had the evidence or not. . . . We know Mr. Demjanjuk is innocent, so we feel comfortable.”

The indictment, presented at Jerusalem District Court, said Demjanjuk’s alleged crimes were “of incomparable severity.”

“He took part in forcing Jews and others into the gas chambers at the camp, he operated the motor by which they were asphyxiated and in this way caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people,” the indictment read.

It accused Demjanjuk of the “murder of numerous Jews . . . whom he tormented to death,” and of other crimes, including cutting off a prisoner’s ear.

Defense attorney Mark O’Connor, a U.S. citizen, has maintained that the case against Demjanjuk resulted from mistaken identity and that “Ivan the Terrible” died in a camp uprising in 1943.

Prosecutors asked that Demjanjuk continue to be held at the maximum security Ayalon Prison near Tel Aviv until his trial. A custody hearing is to be held later this week.

The indictment lists eight Treblinka survivors as witnesses against Demjanjuk, a number of “technical” witnesses and a German named Otto Horn, who was identified as a former Nazi SS officer assigned to Treblinka.

The indictment procedure in Israel, which has no grand jury system, consists of the presentation by the prosecution of the formal charge sheet to a judge.

Demjanjuk was not present at the indictment today. Prosecutors said that, according to Israeli law, the charge sheet must be read to him in court within 60 days.

Demjanjuk was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 1981 after being found guilty of lying about his past when he immigrated in February, 1952. He was extradited to Israel on Feb. 28.