Ohio judge: No restoring Demjanjuk citizenship

CLEVELAND (AP) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday against a bid by convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk to regain his U.S. citizenship.

U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster rejected the retired autoworker's claim, which was based on newly discovered documents, including one document suggesting an incriminating document was a Soviet fraud.

Demjanjuk was convicted by a German court that found he had served as a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Demjanjuk's lawyers argued that the government failed to disclose important evidence, including a 1985 secret FBI report uncovered by The Associated Press that indicates the FBI believed a Nazi ID card purportedly showing that Demjanjuk served as a death camp guard was a Soviet-made fake.

Federal authorities had said Demjanjuk, who has denied serving as a guard at any Nazi camp and is free on bail, was trying to cast himself as a victim following his conviction in Germany on more than 28,000 counts of accessory to murder.

Demjanjuk, who's in his 90s, has been in poor health for years and has been in and out of a hospital since his conviction.

In a response to the original defense citizenship filing, the government included an Oct. 12 affidavit from retired FBI agent Thomas Martin. He said the March 4, 1985, report written by him was based on speculation about a Soviet forgery, not any investigation.

Demjanjuk cannot leave Germany because he has no passport. He could have gotten a U.S. passport if the denaturalization ruling was overturned.

The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk was a Soviet Red Army soldier captured by the Germans in 1942. The Munich court found he agreed to serve the Nazis as a guard at Sobibor.

Demjanjuk's public defender, Dennis Terez, would not comment on a possible appeal of the ruling but said, "We're evaluating our various options at this point."

Mike Tobin, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland, said prosecutors were pleased with the ruling.

"All along the issue in this specific aspect of the case was really just the uninformed or misinformed speculation of one FBI agent, as I think the ruling makes clear," he said.

Demjanjuk's son, John Demjanjuk Jr., who has spoken often on his father's behalf, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Email and phone messages were left for him.