Germany court rules accused Auschwitz paramedic too sick for trial News
Germany court rules accused Auschwitz paramedic too sick for trial

[JURIST] A German court ruled Monday that 95-year-old former Nazi SS medic was not fit to attend court for criminal charges stemming from his time at Auschwitz. Hubert Z is accused of being an accessory to the murder of 3,681 people at Auschwitz. He was scheduled to go on trial Monday following a ruling [JURIST report] last December that he was fit to stand trial. A doctor determined [AP report] Sunday that Hubert Z suffers from high blood pressure, stress and suicidal thoughts, which, along with his age, make him too frail to stand trial. Because of Germany’s privacy laws, Hubert Z’s last name has not been released, but it is known that he was a death camp paramedic that operated as a sergeant in the Nazi SS from 1943 to 1944. The court scheduled the next hearing date for March 14.

Earlier this month a German court began the trial [JURIST report] of a 94-year-old man who was charged with 170,000 counts of accessory to murder at Auschwitz. The 2011 conviction [JURIST report] of former Nazi guard John Demjanjuk may have emboldened German prosecutors to pursue cases against all those who materially helped Nazi Germany function. The most recent person imprisoned for his role in the Holocaust was Oskar Groening. Known as the “accountant of Auschwitz,” Groening was charged [JURIST report] in September 2014 as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people. In July Groening was given a four-year jail sentence for his role at Auschwitz, which he said he would appeal [JURIST reports].

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