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Judge Halts Lithuanian War Crime Trial
A judge indefinitely suspended the trial of an alleged Nazi war criminal after doctors said the bedridden, 93-year-old defendant was too ill to follow the proceedings.
Aleksandras Lileikis is charged with genocide for allegedly handing over scores of Lithuanian Jews to be executed during the 1941-44 German occupation, when he headed the Nazi-backed Vilnius security police. Lileikis lived in the United States for 40 years after World War II and returned to Lithuania in 1995 as a U.S. court was moving to revoke his citizenship. He has denied the charges.
The trial, the first Nazi war crimes proceedings in Lithuania, began in 1998, but was repeatedly delayed because of Lileikis's poor health. It resumed on June 23 but was halted after 30 minutes when Lileikis began gasping for air and was rushed to a hospital. After doctors testified that he is too ill to follow the proceedings, Judge Algimantas Pivoriunas stopped the trial. He ordered doctors to report on Lileikis's health monthly but said it was unlikely the trial would resume.
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