Evidence that John Demjanjuk, 89, may have deliberately run over and killed a Jew while driving a truck in Germany is being studied by police, a German prosecutor told the DPA news agency on Monday.
Ukraine-born Demjanjuk is currently on trial in
Munich over allegations that he helped kill 27,900 Jews at Sobibor Nazi death camp in 1943. He moved from Germany to the United States in 1952.
According to the DPA report, the incident allegedly happened in 1947 near the southern German city of Ulm. Michael Bischofberger, a spokesman for the prosecutions office in Ulm, confirmed a formal murder investigation was under way.
"He is alleged to have deliberately run someone over," the spokesman was quoted by DPA as saying.
DPA said, "There was no official confirmation of a claim in the mass- circulation newspaper Bild that the victim had been Jewish."
The report stated that Demjanjuk, who lived in Germany as a displaced person after the Second World War ended in 1945, is believed to have done various jobs, including driving a truck for the Allied occupation authorities.
Bild said the allegations had been sent to Germany's national war-crimes investigations unit to assess whether they are plausible and that prosecutors in Munich might take over the additional case if the evidence was confirmed, according to the report.
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