Demjanjuk trial to hear testimony from the dead
Munich prosecutors who built the case against former death camp guard Mr Demjanjuk, 89, put 23 witnesses on their list, some of them from Russia and Ukraine.
But all members of the list are dead. It means that Demjanjuk, charged with assisting in 27,900 murders during his time as an SS guard at the extermination camp of Sobibor in occupied Poland, will be judged on records such as his identity card and on the statements of the dead.
His lawyer Guenther Maull said the defence would contest the witness statements may have been made under pressure from Soviet KGB interrogators. "The men were questioned 30 years ago at least in part in the Soviet Union and possibly under pressure," he said. "Whether their statements have any value as evidence is questionable."
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
But all members of the list are dead. It means that Demjanjuk, charged with assisting in 27,900 murders during his time as an SS guard at the extermination camp of Sobibor in occupied Poland, will be judged on records such as his identity card and on the statements of the dead.
His lawyer Guenther Maull said the defence would contest the witness statements may have been made under pressure from Soviet KGB interrogators. "The men were questioned 30 years ago at least in part in the Soviet Union and possibly under pressure," he said. "Whether their statements have any value as evidence is questionable."