Ex-Nazi camp guard Demjanjuk faces new probe

Ex-Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk, sentenced to five years in prison for aiding the murder of nearly 30,000 Jews, now faces a new probe for another 5,000 deaths, a German newspaper said Saturday. Prosecutors in Bavaria in southeast Germany opened a new investigation after accusations relating to his activities at a different concentration camp, Flossenbuerg, the Tagesspiegel reported. It said two complainants are seeking to hold Demjanjuk and another former camp guard responsible for the deaths of 4,974 people at Flossenbuerg between October 1943 and December 1944. About 100,000 people had been held at Flossenbuerg, near the Czech border, and nearby satellite camps, and more than 73,000 of them died, according to official figures. Demjanjuk, 91, was sentenced by a Munich court in May to a five-year prison term. He had been in prison before and during his 18-month-long trial. A judge citing his age released him until the conviction is official, which could take months in Germany, and the Bavarian government placed him in a retirement home. He was previously expelled from the United States and deprived of his US citizenship for lying about his past to US immigration. Ukranian-born Demjanjuk was found guilty of helping the Nazis gas some 27,900 Jews while serving as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in German-occupied Poland during World War II. While there was no direct evidence of his presence or actions at the camp, the court said it believed he had served there as a guard, and was therefore automatically implicated in killings carried out there at the time. Demjanjuk had denied the charges and has filed an appeal. The prosecution, which had asked for a six-year prison sentence, has also appealed the court's decision.