TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2021) A Canadian immigration arbitrator on Wednesday reserved her decision on former Nazi Helmut Oberlander's bid to adjourn proceedings in the deportation hearings against him.
Oberlander's legal team argued a stay of proceedings is warranted, alleging that the former death squad member is the victim of an abuse of process and that the Canadian government withheld sensitive documents for years that impaired his ability to mount an effective defense.
Canada's Immigration and Refugee board (IRB) member Karen Greenwood reserved her decision until a later date, saying that the arguments deserve a deeper dive. The adjudicator noted her intention to render the decision within a "reasonable timeframe."
Crown attorney Angela Marinos rejected the defense's position, saying that the abuse of process allegation fails to meet the Babos test, according to which a stay of proceedings is warranted if the right to a fair trial has been violated and no additional redress exists. Marinos emphasized that Oberlander has been given "every bit of the doubt" unlike the victims of the crimes his Sonderkommando SS-10A death squad perpetrated.
During the hearing, Oberlander's counsel Barb Jackman claimed that it is "wrong" to brand the 97-year-old a Nazi, calling him a "kid" caught up in a war against his will and stressing that the Waterloo, Ontario resident's reputation has been shattered by the accusation. Oberlander, a Ukrainian-born ethnic German, was conscripted into the Schutzstaffel (SS) at the age of 17.
The defense also repeatedly sought to introduce Oberlander's physical state into the proceedings, calling the deportation process against him "punitive." According to a report drafted by Oberlander's physician, he is not expected to survive "much beyond the summer" and has lost most cognitive function.
However, Marinos countered the defense's arguments, saying that admissibility hearings not about full disclosure or fitness to stand trial, and rejecting allegations that Oberlander's rights have been violated.
Oberlander has been embroiled in a legal battle with the Canadian government since 1995, when the latter began trying to strip him of his citizenship, citing his failure to disclose his links to death squads. After a lengthy legal battle, Oberlander was stripped of his citizenship for the fourth and final time in 2017 and Canada's Supreme Court issued a ruling last December that blocked any possibility for Oberlander to appeal this decision.
