By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Lithuanian man suspected of helping Nazis round up Jews during World War II will stand trial in a Vilnius court, the prosecutor general's office said Friday.
Algimantas Dailide, 84, who moved to the United States in 1955 and lived there until he was deported in 2003 for lying about his wartime past, is accused of being a member of the Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian Security Police, known as the Saugumas, which took part in the arrests of Jews during the war.
Most of the 60,000 Jews who lived in Vilnius were slain during a few months in the fall of 1941. Nearly 90 percent of Lithuania's pre-war Jewish population of 220,000 were killed.
Dailide, who lives in Germany with his wife, is charged with the "unlawful treatment of people according to international law," which carries a sentence of 5-20 years in prison.
Prosecutor Rimvydas Valentukevicius said he hoped Dailide would return to Lithuania when the trial date is set. Valentukevicius said the trial would go forward even if Dailide did not return.
The indictment names 15 people who were persecuted for ethnic or political reasons on Dailide's orders.
Dailide was a real estate agent in the Cleveland, Ohio, area before retiring to Gulfport, Florida.