German authorities are unlikely to ever bring to trial a 95-year-old former second world war concentration camp guard who was deported from the US earlier this week, the country’s leading Nazi hunter has said. Jens Rommel, who heads the Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg, said there was not enough evidence to prosecute Jakiw Palij, whom US authorities accuse of involvement in war crimes.

“Right now there is no investigation into him in Germany, which means there is no arrest warrant and as a result it is not very likely that he will ever be convicted,” Rommel told the broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Wednesday. Palij was taken from his home in Queens, New York City, on Monday, in a wheelchair and wrapped in a white sheet, and flown from New Jersey to Düsseldorf airport in Germany, where an ambulance took him to a retirement home, where he is likely to live out the rest of his days. US authorities accuse him of participation in the deaths of 6,000 Jewish men, women and children, a charge Palij denies.(theguardian)…[+]