The Justice Department said Friday it has uncovered evidence misplaced 14 years ago that could help the defense of John Demjanjuk, convicted of being the Nazi concentration camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible."
In a statement, assistant attorney general Robert S. Mueller III said the department has had since 1978 interrogation reports in which two other guards at the Treblinka concentration camp say another man, not Demjanjuk, operated the gas chamber there.The materials, gathered for the prosecution of Feodor Fedorenko, another Treblinka guard, "were apparently maintained in the Fedorenko files from that point onward," Mueller said.
He said that while preliminary evidence indicates no wrongdoing by Justice officials, the matter will be taken up by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates possible prosecutorial misconduct by Justice attorneys.
But Demjanjuk's attorney, John Broadley, dismissed the Justice Department action as a "whitewash" and suggested an independent investigation of the department, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
"It's not the job of the Office of Professional Responsibility to take the Justice Department out to dry," Broadley was quoted by the newspaper in its Saturday editions. "They've never done that. It won't work."
Neither of the newly discovered documents mentions Demjanjuk by name; instead, one refers to a "Marchenko" as one of two "motorists of the gas chamber." The other mentions that " ar the diesel engines by the gas chambers there worked a guard by the name of Marchenko, Nikolay."