War Crimes Trial Put Off Due to Illness

A court postponed indefinitely the genocide trial of a former Lithuanian security chief whose lawyers say is too ill to attend the proceedings. The court said it will appoint a medical commission to determine if 91-year-old Aleksandras Lileikis is too sick to speak in his own defense. Some Jewish groups contend that Lithuanian authorities are trying to drag out the procedures until Lileikis dies. Lileikis, who headed the security police in Vilnius, the capital, during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation, is charged with genocide for ordering scores of Jews to be arrested and handed over to a Nazi execution squad. Lileikis lived in the United States from 1955 to 1996.