Appeals Court Grants 4-Day Stay to Accused Nazi Facing Deportation

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court, temporarily thwarting the U.S. government’s deportation of Karl Linnas, granted the accused Nazi a four-day reprieve Thursday so he can take his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The action by the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals came as Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III prepared to deport Linnas to the Soviet Union, where he faces execution for allegedly running a World War II concentration camp in which 12,000 people were killed.

Attorneys for Linnas persuaded the appeals panel, which on Wednesday lifted a stay and cleared the way for his deportation, to approve the four-day delay so they can make an 11th-hour appeal to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

“A stay of deportation has been granted until 5 p.m. April 6 to permit a motion . . . to be made in the Supreme Court of the United States for a stay of deportation,” the brief order said.

The high court twice has refused to intervene. A Justice Department spokesman said Meese would not act until after Marshall had made a decision.

Linnas, who has been stripped of his U.S. citizenship for concealing his wartime activities when he arrived in the United States in 1951, has been accused of war crimes allegedly committed in the Soviet Union as commander of the Nazi concentration camp in Tartu, Estonia.