War-crimes witness probed

German authorities are investigating whether a man due to testify at the war-crimes trial of John Demjanjuk may have committed killings himself as a concentration camp guard, a prosecutor said.

Kurt Schrimm, who heads the special German prosecutors' office responsible for investigating Nazi-era crimes, said his researchers are trying to determine whether the Alex Nagorny slated to testify is the same Nagorny implicated by witnesses in killing people in Treblinka.

A formal investigation would be launched only after that question is determined.

Demjanjuk's trial on charges of accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews as a death camp guard began on November 30 in Munich.