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Comments (0)The chief defense attorney in the war crimes trial against John Demjanjuk belittled the testimony of Dutch survivors who lost family members in Sobibor in 1943.
Ulrich Busch also said Monday in a Munich court that he had heard that Jewish “police,” known as Kapos, at the Westerbork transit camp in Holland were “worse than the Nazis.” He later said he had read this on the Internet.
The trial continued following a three-week recess. Demjanjuk, 89, is charged with being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews in the Sobibor death camp.
Demjanjuk arrived in court Monday in a wheelchair. His priest, Archbishop Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, sat through the morning hearings and told reporters afterward that Demjanjuk “is a man who has no guilt on his conscience.”
In the courtroom, co-plaintiff Robert Cohen, 83, testified that his parents and brother were sent to Sobibor while he was still at the Westerbork transit camp in Holland. He said the Jewish “order service” patrol was part of the Nazi ruse to make people think deportation was positive.
“I wanted to be deported,” Cohen said. “I thought I would be seeing my father or mother or brother again. I did not know they had been sent to Sobibor [and gassed there]. And I was sent to Auschwitz.”
Following emotional testimony by co-plaintiffs, Busch said that “none of them are witnesses to any deeds, nor can they or will they be.” He added that the murders of their relatives were “not even provable.”
Another defense attorney, Guenther Maull, told JTA that it was the first time a court had brought charges based only on evidence of a defendant’s presence in a location, namely Sobibor.
“Usually they have to prove that he did something,” Maull said, adding that the charge could be the basis for an eventual appeal.
Meanwhile, the court on Monday officially rejected defense attempts to have the case dismissed and charges dropped. The trial is expected to end in May.
Hamas Helping British Lawyers Target Israel
Hamas acknowledged that it masterminded the campaign to pursue war crimes cases against Israeli politicians and military officials in Britain and other European countries.
The group, considered to be a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom and the European Union, says it has been working with lawyers to have the Israelis charged with war crimes in connection with Israel’s Operation Cast Lead last winter.
According to reports Monday in two major British newspapers, The Times and the Daily Telegraph, the Islamic organization is acting to have Israeli leaders arrested in the United Kingdom.
Earlier this month, a judge in London issued an arrest warrant against Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni on suspicion of committing war crimes during the Gaza war. The warrant was withdrawn when it became clear that she was not in Britain.
The incident caused great embarrassment to the British government, and both Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband phoned Livni to apologize.
The Times quotes Diya al-Din Madhoun, head of the Hamas committee set up to coordinate the campaign, who said the committee had “all the political and military leaders of the occupation in our sights,” although he did not specify future targets. He told The Times that “This has absolutely become our policy.”
According to the newspaper, the committee compiled cases against 1,500 Israelis and is encouraging victims to file charges against Israelis in Britain, Spain, Belgium and Norway.
Madhoun said his committee acted as facilitator, putting the victims in touch with European lawyers.
“We have provided a group of independent lawyers in Britain with documents, information and evidence concerning war crimes committed by Israeli political and military leaders, including Ms. Livni,” he said.
Miliband said last week that Britain is urgently looking at ways to make sure that these cases cannot happen again and, in Parliament, the government said it would report on progress early in the new year.
In an article published in Monday’s Daily Telegraph, Israeli ambassador to London Ron Prosor wrote that anti-Israel activists were being allowed to abuse the British legal system.
Peres, Obama Meet in Copenhagen
Israeli President Shimon Peres and President Obama discussed the Middle East on the sidelines of the climate change conference in Copenhagen.
Peres’ office said in a news release that Obama approached the Israeli leader late Friday afternoon at the U.N. Climate Change Conference and embraced him warmly, then talked about the Middle East situation.
“Israel appreciates and respects your significant efforts to renew the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as that between Israel and its Arab neighbors,” Peres told the U.S. president, according to the release. “I ask that you continue in your work to advance peace in the Middle East.”
In updating leaders he met on recent events in the Middle East, Peres emphasized that Israel was willing to make significant efforts to ensure peace. He pointed out that terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which are sponsored by Iran, prevent all the citizens of the Middle East from enjoying peace and prosperity.
Along with Obama, Peres met with several leaders during the past three days of the conference. They included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
Also, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk., Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, Cypriot President Dimtris Christofias, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.