Prosecutors in the trial against Samuel Kunz before the district court in Bonn, Germany are seeking co-plaintiffs, as defined by the relevant German Law.
The prosecution accuses Samuel Kunz of having been an accomplice to the murder of 435,000 persons in the period between late November 1941 and the spring of 1943, when he was a guard at the extermination camp of Belzec.
Samuel Kunz, 89, has been under close investigation since his name emerged in the war crimes trial of fellow Nazi John Demjanjuk.(Read more detail... and further background...)
From The Austrian Times, 7 October 2010:
Prosecutors in Bonn today (Thurs) announced that Kunz will stand trial in January.
...Kunz is said to be one of the most notorious wartime Nazis yet to stand trial and was number three most wanted on the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's list of fugitives.
He is said to have assisted in the killing of hundreds of thousands of Jews while he was serving in the German army in Belzec in occupied Poland between 1942-43. He is also charged with murdering 10 prisoners personally.
One former German serviceman posted with Kunz at the camp told how he snatched his machine gun away from him when he was reluctant to open fire on prisoners saying: "That's not how you shoot."
Kunz then grabbed the gun and opened fire on the defenceless Jewish civilians.
A prospective co-plaintiff in this trial is any person whose parent, sibling or spouse was murdered in Belzec.
A co-plaintiff has the right to file motions, make declarations and to plead at the end of the trial. Moreover, a co-plaintiff can be represented by an attorney, who will be appointed and remunerated by the court.
The co-plaintiff does not even have to appear at the trial in person. He or she has the right to take part in the trial, but this presence is not a requirement. A co-plaintiff does not have to bear any of the action’s costs; neither does he or she have to pay for the appointed attorney.
The participation of co-plaintiffs is important because they give names and faces to the victims and participation presents an opportunity to hold the accused to account in the name of the co-plaintiff’s murdered relatives.
If you wish to participate in this trial as co-plaintiff, please see this website and contact the attorneys. The contact details are listed here.
The attorneys preparing the participation of co-plaintiffs:
Thomas Walther conducted the pre-investigation against John Demjanjuk in his function as a special prosecutor in the central institution for prosecuting Nazi-crimes in Ludwigsburg and has thus played a decisive part in bringing Demjanjuk to criminal trial before the district court in Munich. Thomas Walther is currently an attorney.
Michael Koch and Cornelius Nestler are each representing several co-plaintiffs in the trial against John Demjanjuk before the district court in Munich. Michael Koch is an attorney specializing in criminal law in Frankfurt/Main, Prof. Dr. Cornelius Nestler is professor of criminal law and criminal procedure at the University of Cologne
For more background see
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