WORLD : Trash Yields Demjanjuk Evidence

JERUSALEM —  A lawyer for John Demjanjuk said he had new evidence to show his client is not a Nazi war criminal and asked the Supreme Court today to postpone for at least six months an appeal hearing on his conviction and death sentence.

The evidence includes at least four documents recovered from a garbage pail at the Justice Department in Washington that contradict key testimony given against Demjanjuk at his trial, laywer Yoram Sheftel said in a telephone interview.

Demjanjuk, 69, a retired Ohio auto worker, was found guilty by an Israeli court in April, 1988, of crimes against humanity and crimes against the Jewish people.

Sheftel’s petition cited documents found several weeks ago at the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations. He said that in one document, a key witness against Demjanjuk, former Nazi prison guard Otto Horn who was dubbed Ivan the Terrible, is said to have failed to identify him in a photo line-up, contradicting claims in court that Horn recognized Demjanjuk.