Page 12 - AHATA

A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 21 august 2024
A German court upholds the conviction of a former secretary at a

Nazi concentration camp, age 99

By GEIR MOULSON tors’ office in Ludwigsburg
Associated Press tasked with investigat-
BERLIN (AP) — A German ing Nazi-era war crimes
court on Tuesday rejected says three more cases are
an appeal by a 99-year-old pending with prosecutors
woman who was convict- or courts in various parts
ed of being an accessory of Germany. With any sus-
to more than 10,000 mur- pects now at a very ad-
ders for her role as a secre- vanced age, questions
tary to the SS commander increasingly arise over sus-
of the Nazis’ Stutthof con- pects’ fitness to stand trial.
centration camp during Germany’s main Jewish
World War II. leader welcomed the rul-
The Federal Court of Justice ing. “For Holocaust survi-
upheld the conviction of Ir- vors, it is enormously im-
mgard Furchner, who was portant for a late form of
given a two-year suspend- justice to be attempted,”
ed sentence in December Josef Schuster, the head
2022 by a state court in Itze- of the Central Council of
hoe in northern Germany. Jews, said in statement.
She was accused of be- “The legal system sent an
ing part of the apparatus important message today:
that helped the camp near even nearly 80 years af-
Danzig, now the Polish city Irmgard Furchner, accused of being part of the apparatus that helped the Nazis’ Stutthof ter the Holocaust, no line
of Gdansk, function. She concentration camp function, appears in court for the verdict in her trial in Itzehoe, Germany, can be drawn under Nazi
was convicted of being Dec. 20, 2022. crimes,” he added.
an accessory to murder in Associated Press The Furchner case is one of
10,505 cases and an ac- commander and other se- the commandant’s office to the Auschwitz death several in recent years that
cessory to attempted mur- nior camp officials, and on of the Stutthof concentra- camp and by being sent built on a precedent estab-
der in five cases. whether she had truly been tion camp from June 1, on death marches at the lished in 2011 with the con-
At a federal court hear- aware of what was going 1943, to April 1, 1945, delib- end of the war. viction of former Ohio auto-
ing in Leipzig last month, on at Stutthof. The Itzehoe erately supported the fact Prosecutors said during the worker John Demjanjuk as
Furchner’s lawyers cast court said that judges were that 10,505 prisoners were original proceedings that an accessory to murder on
doubt on whether she re- convinced that Furchner cruelly killed by gassings, Furchner’s trial may be the allegations that he served
ally was an accessory to “knew and, through her by hostile conditions in the last of its kind. However, a as a guard at the Sobibor
crimes committed by the work as a stenographer in camp,” by transportation special federal prosecu- death camp.q

India’s top court creates task force on workplace safety after

doctor was raped and killed

By SHEIKH SAALIQ Dhananjaya Yeshwant Aug. 9 when the killing in India. The court also asked lence against women.
Associated Press Chandrachud said. the eastern city of Kolkata, the federal agency investi- Thousands of people, par-
NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Doctors and medics across the capital of West Bengal gating the killing to submit ticularly women, have
top court on Tuesday set India have been hold- state. The doctors say the a report on Thursday on the marched in the streets of
up a national task force of ing protests, candlelight assault highlights the vul- status of its investigation. A Kolkata and other Indian
doctors who will make rec- marches and even tempo- nerability of health care police volunteer has been cities demanding justice
ommendations on safety of rarily refused care for non- workers in hospitals and arrested and charged with for the doctor. They say
health care workers at their emergency patients since medical campuses across the crime, but the family of women in India continue
workplaces, days after the the victim alleges it was a to face rising violence de-
rape and killing of a trainee gang rape and more peo- spite tough laws that were
doctor that sparked out- ple were involved. implemented following the
rage and nationwide pro- The suspension of work by gang-rape and murder of
tests. doctors has affected thou- a 23-year-old student on a
The Supreme Court said the sands of patients across In- moving bus in Delhi in 2012.
doctors’ panel will frame dia. They are demanding That attack had inspired
guidelines for ensuring more stringent laws to pro- lawmakers to order harsher
safety and protection of tect them from violence, in- penalties for such crimes
medical professionals and cluding making any attack and set up fast-track courts
health care workers across on on-duty medics an of- dedicated to rape cases.
the country. fense without the possibility The government also intro-
“Protecting safety of doc- of bail. duced the death penalty
tors and women doctors is The rape and killing of the for repeat offenders.
a matter of national inter- 31-year-old trainee doctor Despite tougher legislation,
est and principle of equali- at Kolkata city’s R.G. Kar sexual violence against
ty. The nation cannot await Indians protesting against the rape and killing of a trainee doctor Medical College and Hos- women has remained a
another rape for it to take at a government hospital in Kolkata, hold placards in Mumbai, pital has also focused rage widespread problem in
some steps,” Chief Justice India, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. Associated Press on the chronic issue of vio- India.q