From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
German court rules 100-year-old ex-Nazi camp guard fit to stand trial
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German authorities are pressing for a 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard to face trial almost 80 years after the end of World War II.
The higher regional court in Frankfurt today says it had overturned a decision by a lower court under which the suspect had been deemed unfit to stand trial.
The suspect, named as Gregor Formanek by German media, was charged last year with aiding and abetting murder in 3,322 cases while working at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin between July 1943 and February 1945.
However, an expert determined in February that Formanek was not fit to stand trial due to his mental and physical condition and the court in Hanau, Hesse state, eventually decided not to open the proceedings against him.
The Frankfurt court today finds the expert’s decision had not been based on “sufficient facts.”
German court rules 99-year old ex-Nazi concentration camp guard Gregor Formanek unfit to stand trial.
Prosecutors claim he is responsible for 3,300 murders at Sachsenhausen.
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“The expert himself stated that it was not possible to interview the defendant and that the opportunity for extensive psychiatric testing was not available,” it says.
Germany has been scrambling to bring the last surviving former Nazi war criminals to justice since a 2011 landmark ruling paved the way for several trials.
The Times of Israel Community.