Globe and Mail | Mar. 08, 2004 | Lubomyr Prytulak
Letter to Editor

By LUBOMYR PRYTULAK
Ukrainian Archive
Toronto Globe and Mail
Monday, March 8, 2004 - Page A12

Vancouver -- Len Rudner (The Demjanjuk Trial -- Globe and Mail letter, March 6, 2004) misinforms readers on both his points.

First, there was a massive cover-up of exculpatory evidence. Here is what U.S. judge Gilbert Merritt told Ha'aretz: "Today we know that they -- the OSI, the prosecution in the case and the State Department -- lied through their teeth. Even then they knew without a doubt that Demjanjuk was not Ivan the Terrible, but they hid the information from us. I am sorry that I did not have the information at the time. If I did, we would never have ruled in favour of his extradition to Israel."

Second, the Israelis never discovered any evidence that exculpated John Demjanjuk. What they did do was to respond to overwhelming pressure from many directions to release an obviously innocent Mr. Demjanjuk, and their "discovery" was one that saved them embarrassment.

That is, they "discovered" that Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka was really some other Ukrainian, Ivan Marchenko, who, being dead, was in no position to object.