A German television show reports that the government in Berlin has refused to accept suspected Nazi war criminals from the United States.
Monitor, a TV news magazine airing on the public network ARD, said that about one dozen people are involved. They have been stripped of U.S. citizenship for lying when they applied for admission, but cannot be deported.
The German government argues that the suspects have not been convicted, and deportation hearings in the United States are civil proceedings with a lower standard of proof. Officials are concerned that, if the suspects are allowed to enter Germany, they would be likely to join neo-Nazi groups and, because of their age, would be supported by social services.
While one government agency refuses to accept the suspected Nazis, another -- the Central Office for the Clarification of National Socialist Crimes -- would like to try them.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
