John Demjanjuk deemed Nazi death camp guard, convicted on 28,000 counts as accesory to murder

(CBS/AP) MUNICH - John Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. autoworker, was convicted of thousands of counts of acting as an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp and sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison, a groundbreaking verdict that closed one chapter in a legal battle that has lasted decades. 

Demjanjuk was found guilty of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder, one for each person who died during the time he was ruled to have been a guard at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

The presiding judge described the 91-year-old as the Nazis' "machinery of destruction."

Demjanjuk sat wheelchair-bound in front of the judges as they announced their verdict, but he showed no emotion. He has denied the charges, but declined the opportunity to make a final statement to the court.

Judge Ralph Alt ordered that Demjanjuk be freed during his appeal - a process that is likely to take six months or more. Such a release is not unusual in Germany and Alt said Demjanjuk did not pose a flight risk because of his age, health and the fact that he was deported from the U.S. two years ago.

There is no evidence that Demjanjuk committed a specific crime. The prosecution was based on the theory that if he was at the camp, he was participating in the killings, which is the first time such legal arguments had been made in German court.

"This case is a door opener," said Thomas Walther, who led the investigation. "It could be very soon that more are brought to the table."

Integral to the prosecutions case was a Nazi SS I.D. card that allegedly shows a picture of a young Demjanjuk. The defense maintains it is a fake produced by the Soviet KGB.

Complete Coverage of John Demjanjuk on Crimesider