It was a dramatic day in Cleveland today for John Demjanjuk, an 89-year-old former autoworker accused of Nazi war crimes. Early this afternoon, US Immigration officials carried John Demjanjuk out of his yellow ranch home in suburban Cleveland in a wheelchair. The Ukranian immigrant has been fighting charges that he worked as a Nazi priosn camp guard for 32 years now. An Israeli court sentenced him to death in 1988 naming him as the notorious prison guard, Ivan the Terrible. But last minute evidence from the former Soviet Union proved those charges wrong. Then in 2001, the US Government charged that Demjanjuk actually worked at a different death camp, Sobibor in Poland. German prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest, naming him as accesory to the murder of at least 29,000 people. Case Western Reserve University war crimes expert Michael Scharf says the Demjanjuk case is remarkable.
Michael Scharf:There has never been an extradition or deportation case in the history of any country that has gone on this long.
Demjanjuk's son drove clear across Ohio today to stop the deportation claiming his father was too ill to travel. And a stay was granted. The Demjanjuk's pastor Rev. John Nakonachny, of St. Vladimir Ukranian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma was amazed at the latest turn in the case.
Rev. John Nakonachny: Unbelievable. So though they take him back home to wait for another judge or more reports? I believe its all in God's hands at this stage.
Demjanjuk and his family have long proclaimed his innocence. Demjanjuk's attorney in Munich had said he was expecting his new client on Wednesday.