German court rules 100-year-old man will stand trial

(MENAFN) A German court has ruled that a 100-year-old man, accused of being a former guard at a Nazi concentration camp, will stand trial despite previous claims that he was unfit to do so. The man, named Gregor Formanek in German media, faces charges of aiding in the murder of over 3,300 people while serving in an SS guard battalion at the Sachsenhausen death camp during World War II.

Earlier, a medical expert concluded that Formanek was unable to stand trial due to his physical and mental state, leading a district court in Hanau to halt the proceedings. However, after complaints from prosecutors and co-plaintiffs, a higher regional court in Frankfurt ruled that the expert's findings were insufficient, clearing the way for the trial to proceed.

Torsten Kunze, the Frankfurt Attorney General, welcomed the decision, highlighting the historical significance of the trial, which could be one of the last of its kind. Under German law, anyone who worked at a Nazi concentration camp can be prosecuted for complicity in the murders committed there. This ruling follows a landmark 2011 case in which John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian guard at Sobibor death camp, was convicted of aiding in the murder of 28,060 Jews.

Formanek is believed to have served at Sachsenhausen between 1943 and 1945, a camp where between 40,000 and 100,000 prisoners, including Jews, Soviet soldiers, and others, were murdered through forced labor, starvation, executions, and medical experiments.

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