‘Demjanjuk's statements inconsistent’

German investigator disputes 89-year-old's statements on whereabouts.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thomas Walther (photo credit: Associated Press)
Thomas Walther
(photo credit: Associated Press)
A top German investigator testified Tuesday that there are inconsistencies in John Demjanjuk's story about where he spent the remainder of World War II after being captured by the Germans.
Thomas Walther, who led the investigation that prompted Germany to prosecute Demjanjuk on 27,900 counts of accessory to murder, disputed some of the 89-year-old's statements about where he was after his 1942 capture.
Demjanjuk, a Red Army draftee from Ukraine, is accused of agreeing to serve the Nazis as a guard at the Sobibor death camp after his capture.
Demjanjuk maintains he never served in any death camp and is the victim of mistaken identity.
Walther testified, however, that in investigations against the retired Ohio autoworker in Israel and the United States, Demjanjuk gave conflicting testimony about his whereabouts, with some of it "being historically impossible."
He testified, for example, that Demjanjuk once claimed to have servedwith the Ukrainian Liberation Army, formed by the Germans to fight theSoviets, in Graz, Austria in 1943.
"This army at that time wasat no point in Graz," Walther, who has now retired from the specialGerman prosecutors' office responsible for investigating Nazi-eracrimes, told the Munich state court.