VZCZCXYZ0033
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #9235 1791417
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 271419Z JUN 08
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY KYIV IMMEDIATE 6896

UNCLAS STATE 069235 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SMIG UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: DEMARCHE REQUEST REGARDING THE REMOVAL 
OF JOHN DEMJANJUK 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary and Action Request:  This is an action 
message.  Ambassador is requested to approach 
the Government of Ukraine at the highest appropriate level to 
request that the GoU accept John Demjanjuk, 
AKA Ivan Demjanjuk (DPOB 03 April 1920, Dubovye Makharintsky, 
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), 
a stateless person and denaturalized U.S. citizen, following 
his removal from the U.S. on the basis 
of immigration fraud and his service in Nazi-run 
concentration camps. 
Department appreciates Embassy's assistance in this important 
matter. End Summary. 
 
BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
¶2. (U) In 1977, the U.S. Department of Justice requested that 
a U.S. court revoke John Demjanjuk's 
citizenship based on false statements and omissions he made 
in his immigration application regarding 
his service in Nazi-run concentration camps in World War II. 
The U.S. deported Demjanjuk to Israel in 
1986 to stand trial on charges that he was "Ivan the 
Terrible," a concentration camp guard at Treblinka 
who brutalized detainees before their executions.  The 
Israeli Supreme Court acquitted Demjanjuk of these 
specific charges in 1993, after which he returned to the U.S. 
 In 2002, a U.S. court again stripped 
Demjanjuk of his U.S. citizenship in light of his service in 
Nazi camps and the false statements and 
omissions in his 1952 immigration application.  These acts 
and omissions made him ineligible for 
admission to the U.S. and for U.S. citizenship, and a U.S. 
court ordered Demjanjuk deported in 2005. 
In May 2008, the Supreme Court denied Demjanjuk's petition 
for certiorari, declining to hear his case 
against the deportation order.  Demjanjuk has exhausted all 
judicial remedies. 
 
¶3. (U) BEGIN TALKING POINTS 
--------------------------- 
 
-- The United States requests that the GoU accept John 
Demjanjuk AKA Ivan Demjanjuk to Ukrainian territory. 
 
-- Demjanjuk was admitted to the U.S. in 1952 under the 
Displaced Persons Act, which sought to resettle 
refugees from World War II, and naturalized as a U.S. citizen 
in 1958.  A U.S. court stripped Demjanjuk of 
his U.S. citizenship in 2002 in light of the false statements 
and omissions in his application for entry 
into the United States.  A U.S. court ordered Demjanjuk's 
removal from the U.S. in 2005.  He has exhausted 
all of his judicial appeals. 
 
-- Although Demjanjuk is now legally "stateless," he was born 
in 1920 in Dubovye Makharintsky of the 
then-Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.  Demjanjuk listed 
"Ukraine" as the country of which he was 
a "citizen, subject, or national" on his 1958 petition for 
naturalization. 
 
-- Denying Demjanjuk residence in the U.S. is an essential 
step to providing a measure of accountability 
for his history of service to the Nazi regime. 
 
-- The United States would greatly appreciate Ukraine's 
cooperation in this matter. 
 
END TALKING POINTS 
RICE