Deportation of accused Nazi camp guard halted

A US appeals court has granted a stay to an accused Nazi death camp guard, John Demjanjuk, in a ruling that acknowledged the prospect of his imminent deportation to Germany by US authorities.

Mr Demjanjuk's son petitioned a court of appeal in Cincinnati to consider whether deporting his 89-year-old father to Germany amounted to torture, because of what his family said was his frail health.

Mr Demjanjuk was removed from his Cleveland, Ohio, home in a wheelchair. His family says he had spinal problems, kidney failure and anaemia. US prosecutors said the court lacked jurisdiction, which two appeals court judges said was an issue it needed to consider before lifting the stay.

In Germany, Mr Demjanjuk faces charges over the deaths of 29,000 Jews. Prosecutors accuse him of being an accessory in 1943 killings at the Sobibor death camp, an area in Poland then occupied by Nazi Germany.