Anthony Sawoniuk

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Anthony Sawoniuk (7 March 1921, Damačava, West Belarus - 6 November 2005, Norwich, England) was a convicted Nazi war criminal. His name is rendered Antoni Sawoniuk in Polish, and Андрэй Саванюк Andrej Savaniuk in Belarusian.

[edit] Biography

Damačava (Polish: Domaczewo) was part of the region that became part of the Belorussian SSR in 1939.

Sawoniuk fled the region after the war and lived in England from 1946. In the early 1950s he wrote a letter to his brother, Mikołaj, in Poland. The KGB, who already suspected him of being a war criminal, intercepted the letter and noted that he was now living in the UK.

It was not until the 1980s that the KGB started sharing such information with the UK. However, even then, due to a misspelling of his name, it took until 1993 for authorities to realise that Sawoniuk, now working for British Rail, was one of the people on the KGB list and was duly arrested.

Sawoniuk was tried at the Old Bailey in London in 1999 and given two life sentences for the murder of 18 Jews in his Nazi-occupied hometown during World War II. He was the first and the only person in United Kingdom to be convicted under the War Crimes Act 1991.

From a legal perspective this case is interesting as he was prosecuted on the basis of universal jurisdiction - still a controversial matter in international law. ^[1]

He died in Norwich Prison aged 84.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sawoniuk - a hidden life exposed (BBC)

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