Ludwigsburg, Germany - Investigators hope to put alleged Nazi war criminal Ivan John Demjanjuk on trial as officials of the German central office for solving Nazi crimes Monday handed over the results of their preliminary investigation to prosecutors. The head of the office, Kurt Schrimm, said he hopes prosecutors in Munich will seek extradition of 88-year-old Demjanjuk from the United States, where he emigrated in the 1950s and worked in the car industry.
Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk is accused of having having participated in the murder of at least 29,000 European Jews at the death camps in Sobibor and Treblinka, Poland, during World War II.
US authorities extradited him to Israel in 1986 after his alleged role in the Holocaust became known in the 1970s. He was accused of crimes committed at the Treblinka death camp, where he got the nickname Ivan the Terrible for his alleged crimes.
Demjanjuk was found guilty and sentenced to death in 1988, but the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 1990, saying that it could not be proven that he really was Ivan the Terrible.
The German Nazi hunters are now convinced that their investigation has brought new evidence about his activities in Sobibor.
The investigation office, which has faced much criticism lately for not delivering results, celebrates its 50th anniversary on December 1.
