They Assail Prosecution as ‘Ivan’ Case Nears End : Demjanjuk Relatives Disrupt War Crimes Trial

After a year and three days of testimony and argument, the trial of accused Nazi mass murderer John Demjanjuk entered its final stages Thursday when the defense concluded its closing arguments with a plea to the three judges to find the former Cleveland auto worker innocent.

But the proceedings, held in a one-time movie theater, were disrupted throughout the day by disorder and charges by Demjanjuk’s family that the prosecution had withheld crucial evidence and witnesses.

“It’s been a setup from beginning to end,” said John Demjanjuk Jr., the defendant’s 22-year-old son, referring to the refusal by chief prosecutor Michael Shaked to help the defense obtain testimony from 20 survivors of the Treblinka concentration camp, now living in the United States, who in out-of-court interviews did not identify the accused as being the gas chamber operator known as “Ivan the Terrible.”

Demjanjuk, a 67-year-old native of the Ukraine, is charged with running gas chambers where 850,000 Jews were slaughtered in 1942 and 1943.

He is only the second person tried in Israel as a war criminal, the first being Adolf Eichmann, who was convicted and executed in 1962. Demjanjuk faces death if convicted. A verdict is expected in April.

The outburst by Demjanjuk Jr., his sister, Irene Mishnic, and mother, Vera Demjanjuk, came after Shaked declared that not only had he given the defense all available evidence “on a silver platter,” he had even translated the material into English.

The younger Demjanjuk leaped from his seat in the front row of the auditorium and ran onto the stage, where the trial was being conducted. “You’re a liar!” he shouted.

Mishnic then ran onto the stage, waving her arms and crying out, “You’re lying!” Then it was the defendant’s wife. “You’re a liar! You liar! Shame on you! You have no heart!” she screamed at Shaked. “Nothing!”

At that point, two of the several trial police, who had sat stunned through the outbursts, grabbed the older woman and pulled her from the stage.

As the three relatives were hustled out a side door, the defendant’s son bellowed out curses.

It was not the first outburst of emotion during the last day of the grueling trial. The day began with Paul Chumak, a Canadian who is one of three defense lawyers, making a qualified apology for drawing an analogy between the prosecution of his client and the infamous Dreyfus trial in France, in which the government was later found to have framed an army officer because he was Jewish.

Although he refused to withdraw the remarks, he told the court Thursday that he was referring not to the role played by Israel but to the motivation of the Soviet Union in providing what the defense contends is trumped-up evidence.

Israeli legal experts said it appeared that Chumak, who is of Ukrainian extraction and whose expenses are being paid for in part by donations raised in Canada’s large Ukrainian community, was trying to suggest that Demjanjuk is being victimized because of his ethnic background.

Demjanjuk’s lawyers maintain that the Soviets set up their client because he deserted from the Russian army during World War II and joined Ukrainian nationalists fighting on the side of Nazi Germany.

Demjanjuk, who in 1981 was stripped of the U.S. citizenship he obtained after World War II and extradited to Israel, denies that he was a guard or gas chamber operator at Treblinka.

And in spite of identification by several Treblinka survivors and a German photo identification card listing him as a camp guard, Demjanjuk says he is the victim of mistaken identity.

When another defense lawyer, American John Gill, was repeating this assertion during his part of the summation Thursday morning, a man in the audience of about 300 suddenly shouted, “Lawyers are all liars!” and said he wanted “to tell the truth about Ukrainians” helping to murder Jews.

The man, later identified as a Treblinka survivor whose family was exterminated at the camp, was taken gently from the court.

Throughout, Demjanjuk looked on impassively, turning his head only at the various outbursts.

It was not until he was out of the courtroom and stepping into a police van that the handcuffed defendant said anything. “I’m OK,” he yelled to reporters. “Don’t worry about me; I’m not Ivan.”

In fact, except for the occasional shouting and swearing, the last day of argument was free of emotion, appearing more of a technical discussion of crime lab and photo identification methods than a trial once billed as a lesson to mankind on the subject of total evil.

And instead of the hundreds of people who stood in line for hours to attend the trial in the beginning, the courtroom was only about half full during the concluding session.

Even Gill’s attempt at an emotional ending seemed to fall flat. “Your honors,” he said to the three judges, “John Demjanjuk’s life is in your hands. I leave you with an Irish blessing: May God hold you in the palm of his hand while you deliberate the fate of my client, John Demjanjuk.”

There was a pause, then a cough by one of the judges, who closed the session by saying only that he would give all the lawyers 10 days’ notice in advance of the panel’s decision.