100-year-old Suspect from Nazi Death Camp to Face Trial
German courts have made a significant decision allowing for a 100-year-old man, who is accused of being a guard at a Nazi concentration camp, to face trial. Read Full Article at RT.com
TroibNews 
Earlier this year, Gregor Formanek was deemed unfit to appear before the courts.
German courts have now cleared the way for a 100-year-old man, alleged to have served as a concentration camp guard, to face trial, reversing a previous lower court's decision regarding his fitness for trial.
The media has identified the suspect as Gregor Formanek, who was charged last year with being complicit in the murder of over 3,300 individuals while he was part of an SS guard battalion at the Sachsenhausen death camp during World War II.
In February, a medical expert concluded that the centenarian was not fit to stand trial due to both his physical and mental condition. Consequently, a district court in Hanau decided to halt the proceedings.
However, a higher regional court in Frankfurt recently determined that the expert's conclusions were inadequate, following complaints from a local prosecutor's office and several co-plaintiffs regarding the Hanau district court's ruling.
Frankfurt Attorney General Torsten Kunze expressed approval of this development, emphasizing the trial's potential significance as one of the last of its kind, as reported by the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau.
According to German law, individuals who worked at Nazi concentration camps can be prosecuted for their involvement in the murders that took place there. A landmark 2011 ruling established a legal precedent when John Demjanjuk, a former Ukrainian guard at the Sobibor death camp, was convicted of complicity in the murder of 28,060 Jews.
Since that ruling, several former employees of Nazi concentration camps have been found guilty in Germany.
Formanek was reported to be a member of an SS guard battalion at Sachsenhausen concentration camp from 1943 to 1945. The camp, situated just north of Berlin, housed over 200,000 Soviet soldiers, Jews, Roma, and other prisoners between its opening in 1936 and its liberation by Soviet and Polish forces in 1945. Varying accounts estimate that between 40,000 and 100,000 inmates died due to forced labor, starvation, executions, and medical experiments conducted at the facility.
Ian Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
German courts have now cleared the way for a 100-year-old man, alleged to have served as a concentration camp guard, to face trial, reversing a previous lower court's decision regarding his fitness for trial.
The media has identified the suspect as Gregor Formanek, who was charged last year with being complicit in the murder of over 3,300 individuals while he was part of an SS guard battalion at the Sachsenhausen death camp during World War II.
In February, a medical expert concluded that the centenarian was not fit to stand trial due to both his physical and mental condition. Consequently, a district court in Hanau decided to halt the proceedings.
However, a higher regional court in Frankfurt recently determined that the expert's conclusions were inadequate, following complaints from a local prosecutor's office and several co-plaintiffs regarding the Hanau district court's ruling.
Frankfurt Attorney General Torsten Kunze expressed approval of this development, emphasizing the trial's potential significance as one of the last of its kind, as reported by the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau.
According to German law, individuals who worked at Nazi concentration camps can be prosecuted for their involvement in the murders that took place there. A landmark 2011 ruling established a legal precedent when John Demjanjuk, a former Ukrainian guard at the Sobibor death camp, was convicted of complicity in the murder of 28,060 Jews.
Since that ruling, several former employees of Nazi concentration camps have been found guilty in Germany.
Formanek was reported to be a member of an SS guard battalion at Sachsenhausen concentration camp from 1943 to 1945. The camp, situated just north of Berlin, housed over 200,000 Soviet soldiers, Jews, Roma, and other prisoners between its opening in 1936 and its liberation by Soviet and Polish forces in 1945. Varying accounts estimate that between 40,000 and 100,000 inmates died due to forced labor, starvation, executions, and medical experiments conducted at the facility.
Ian Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
