John Demjanjuk, a former Nazi death camp guard deported from the United States to Germany for his alleged role in the death of over 29,000 Jews, has been moved to hospital, his lawyer told AFP on Tuesday.

Ulrich Busch declined to say why his client was taken to hospital “for data protection reasons” but mass circulation daily Bild said the 89-year-old had suffered an attack of gout.

“Mr Demjanjuk has been treated in hospital since Sunday. He is no longer in the Stadelheim prison, because there is a medical wing there but no hospital,” Busch said.  
He added: “I cannot give any information as to how long he will stay in hospital.”

Doctors are still assessing whether the octogenarian, who according to his family suffers from a litany of health complaints including kidney disease and blood disorders, is fit to stand trial.

“Experts will undertake the necessary examinations this week to determine his fitness to stand trial,” Busch said.

The day after he arrived in Germany following his deportation, medical officials at Stadelheim prison near the southern city of Munich declared him fit enough to remain in custody.

At the time, deputy prison director Jochen Menzel said Demjanjuk was in strikingly good condition. “He is not typical for his age … he is in better shape than usual for an 89-year old,” he told news channel N24.

Demjanjuk is suspect number three in the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s latest report on wanted Nazi war criminals, behind two others thought to be dead.

If he were to stand trial, it could be one of the last dealing with war crimes of more than 60 years ago.

He denies the prosecution’s charge that he was at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943.

But courts in both Israel and the United States have previously stated he was a guard at Sobibor, accusations he had never challenged before.

Prosecutors also have an SS identity card with a photograph of a young man said to be Demjanjuk and written transcripts of witness testimony placing him at the camp.

(Source: AFP)