Demjanjuk Judge Has Heart Attack, Trial Put on Hold

A judge in the atrocities trial of accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk suffered a heart attack and the proceedings have been delayed indefinitely, Israeli officials said today.

Judge Zvi Tal, 57, was under treatment at Jerusalem’s Shaarei Zedek Hospital after suffering the seizure Wednesday evening, hospital spokesman Rami Sadan said.

Yossi Hassin, a spokesman for the Demjanjuk trial, said the proceedings were “delayed until further notice” because of Tal’s illness. Demjanjuk, 67, is accused of being the brutal guard “Ivan the Terrible” who operated gas chambers at the Treblinka death camp.

Tal is also a judge in the treason trial of Mordecai Vanunu, 32, a former Israeli nuclear technician who told Israel’s atomic secrets to a British newspaper. It was not immediately clear if or how Tal’s illness would affect the closed-door Vanunu trial, which went on without his presence today.