A lawyer for John Demjanjuk, accused of helping¹ to murder 27,900 Jews at a Nazi² death camp, has accused German prosecutors³ of double standards.

John Demjanjuk的一位律师，现已起诉德国公诉人实行双重标准。据悉John Demjanjuk涉嫌在纳粹死亡集中营中帮助谋杀27900名犹太人而被指控。

Mr Demjanjuk, 89, denies he was a guard at Sobibor camp, in wartime Poland.

As the case began in Munich, his legal team said in previous cases Germans assigned to（指派） the camp had been cleared.

The Ukraine-born accused, who was extradited（引渡） to Germany from the US in May, was twice carried into court, first in a wheelchair then a stretcher（担架）.

Doctors have said Mr Demjanjuk is in poor health, and asked that hearings be limited to two 90-minute sessions a day.

Over 60 years after the end of World War II, this may be Germany's last big war crimes trial.

'Under duress⁴'

But the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Munich says that, as the first to focus on a low-ranking foreigner rather than a senior Nazi commander, it breaks new legal ground.

Defence lawyer Ulrich Busch said it should never have gone to trial.

"How can you say that those who gave the orders were innocent... and the one who received the orders is guilty?" Mr Busch told the court.

"There is a moral and legal double standard being applied⁵ today."

Mr Busch has said even if it could be proved his client - who was captured by the Nazis⁶ while fighting in the Soviet⁷ army - was in Sobibor, he would have been there under duress（强迫，监禁）.

A retired⁸ Ohio car-worker, Mr Demjanjuk stands accused of having helped the Nazi death factory to function.

Prosecutors say he was a guard who pushed thousands of Jews to their deaths in the gas chambers⁹ at Sobibor.

Lawyers for Mr Demjanjuk - who denies being at the death camp - say he will not speak at all during the case.

The trial is expected to last until May and, if found guilty, Mr Demjanjuk could be sentenced to 15 years in jail.

If Mr Demjanjuk is acquitted¹⁰（释放） it is not clear where he will go as he has been stripped of his US citizenship¹¹.

A leading French Nazi-hunter voiced disappointment over the case as he said the accused would only have been a minor¹² figure.

Serge Klarsfeld told AFP news agency on Monday: "It's a bit disappointing - a bedridden（卧床不起的） non-German, occupying a subordinate（次要的，附属的） position and who would have died of hunger in a prison camp" if he had refused to serve as a guard.

'Hollywood, not Sobibor'

Mr Demjanjuk arrived on Monday in an ambulance at the courtroom, which was crowded with people, including journalists and relatives of Holocaust¹³ survivors¹⁴.

A pale Mr Demjanjuk, his eyes closed for much of the time, was taken into court in a wheelchair.

A doctor who examined Mr Demjanjuk two hours before proceedings¹⁵ began said his vital signs（声明特征） were stable.

After the first session, the accused was returned to court lying on a stretcher and covered in blankets.

Doctors ordered the second session to be cut short after examining Mr Demjanjuk, who was complaining of pain.

But Efraim Zuroff, director of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center, said: "Demjanjuk put on a great act. He should have gone to Hollywood, not Sobibor."