An
89-year-old man has been detained without bail on a German arrest warrant that
charges him with the murder of at least 216,000 men, women and children. The
hearing follows an investigation by prosecutors in Bavaria.
The
accused, a resident of Philadelphia, was ordered to be held without bail on
Wednesday, charged with aiding and abetting the killings at Auschwitz.
Johann
"Hans" Breyer, who was taken into custody by US officials on Tuesday
night, appeared in court wearing an olive green jumpsuit and supported by a
cane.
Breyer's
attorney, Dennis Boyle, argued that he was too weak to stand trial. Breyer
himself admits he was a guard at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in
German-occupied Poland, but says he was stationed outside. He claims to have
had nothing to do with the slaughter of some 1.5 million people behind the
gates.
The New
York Times quoted court documents stating that Breyer faced 158 counts of
aiding and abetting Nazi atrocities.
The retired
toolmaker, who was born in Czechslovakia, is believed to have joined the SS at
the age of 17. Breyer's defense team claims he was coerced into doing so during
World War II.
Mother
emigrated from US to Europe
Breyer left
for the US in 1952, but became the subject of deportation proceedings, started
by the US Justice Department during the 1990s. His attorneys argued he was a
naturalized US citizen because his mother had been born in Philadelphia, having
moved to Europe as a child.
After years
of failed US efforts to have Breyer stripped of his US citizenship, the latest
hearing stems from an investigation by a prosecutor in the Bavarian town of
Weiden, near where he last lived in Germany.
"Germany
deserves credit for doing this - for extending and expanding their efforts and,
in a sense, making a final attempt to maximize the prosecution of Holocaust
perpetrators," Efraim Zuroff, veteran Nazi hunter and Jerusalem director
of the Simon Wiesenthal Center told the AFP news agency in a telephone
interview.
Breyer
faces an extradition hearing on August 21, and will be held in custody until
then. Until a ruling by a Munich court in 2011, which sentenced another US
immigrant to five years in prison, only individuals shown to have personally
committed atrocities could be prosecuted by German courts.
The
ultimate decision about whether Breyer can be extradited to Germany rests with
US Secretary of State John Kerry.
rc/lw (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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