U.S. LOSES BID TO OUST NAZI SUSPECT LAIPENIEKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120055-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 25, 2011
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: January 10, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/25: CIA-RDP90-01
nrD
US Loses
Gust
Nazi Suspect
laiperdeks
LOS ANGELES TIMES
10 January 1985
Former prisoners and people still
living in Riga. Latvia, which is now
part of the Soviet Union, were
among those who testified in per-
son and via tape recordings during
the hearing.
Laipenieks admitted during the
hearing that he .'roughed up' a few
communist prisoners after being
recruited by the Nazis, but denied
seriously hurting or killing anyone.
Before the war, Laipenieks had
been t schoolteacher and a star
athlete, competing in the 5,000_
meter run at the 1936 Olympics in
Berlin. He said he joined the invad-
ing Nazis after Russian troops
murdered his parents and fa-
ther-in-law.
After the war, he traveled to
Chile, where he coached -;at coun-
try's Olympic track team. In 1960
he obtained a U.S. visa and became
a physical education professor and
coach at the University of Denver.
It was during that time that
Laipenieks said he was first con-
tacted by the CIA, which was
seeking information about commu-
nists in Latvia.
In 1969, he came came to Califor-
nia to coach track at La Jolla
Country Day School and applied for
U.S. citizenship in 1973. His appli-
cation, he was told, was rejected
because his name was on a list o-317
alleged war criminals living in the
United States..- .
A federal law provides for depor-
tation of aliens who took part in the
persecution of any person because
of race, religion, national origin or
political opinion in collaboration
with a government in German-oc-
cupied territory between 1933 and
1944.
According the Court of Appeals'
majority opinion written by Judge
Thomas tang, the government
failed to prove that Laipenieks had
persecuted people solely because of
their political opinions.
"W=,7hile we certainly do not con-
done the treatment that prisoners
apparently received at the (Riga)
prison, we do not find Laipenieks'
admission (that he occasionally
struck prisoners) sufficient to sup-
port deportability." Tang wrote.
Tang, joined by Judge Robert
Beezer, rejected written state-
ment_ from nine Soviet witnesses,
saying that their depositions
against Laipenieks may have been
written in the Soviet Union under
ntimi Rating" circumstances.
But dissenting Judge Robert
Boochever said the court should
have dcferrec to earlier findings of
the Board of Immigration Appeals,
which ruled that the Soviets had
been imprisoned solely on the basis
of their beliefs.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/25: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120055-0
By DAVID FREED,
Times Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO- A federal- appeal
court on Wednesday reiected long-
tine U attempts to oepor; ac-
cused v: ar criminal and former CIA
pmplovee Ed LaiDenieks of La
Jolla a Latvian who admitted beat-
ing communists while working for
Nazi occupation forces during
World W, a7. Il.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled 2 to 1 that U.S.
Justice Department officials failed
to Drove allegations that Laipen-
ieks, 71, persecuted Jews and polit-
ical prisoners held at the infamous
Riga Central Prison in Latvia.
According to the court, evidence
showed that Laipenieks persecuted
only communists while working as
an investigator for the Latvian
Political Police, a Nazi puppet
organization.
The), said I was responsible for
killing 60.000 Jews." Laipenieks
told The Times in an interview
Wednesday. "My God. I never had
thine? to do with the: Jews. I was
in the Latviar. Politica. Police. like
the : ~: or IA tracing Russian
and communist killers. That was
my only job."
.e said ne is employed today as a
security guard, living in a trailer on
a construction site in La Jolla.
Deportation. Hearing
The Justice Department's Office
of Special investigations in June,
1991, sued to have Laipenieks ex-
pelled from the country, claiming
that he had concealed his role as
head jailer at the Riga prison
during World War II. Witnesses
who testified in 1932 at a deporta-
tion hearing in San Diego said
Laipenieks was responsible for or-
dering the execution there of at
least 200 prisoners from 1941 to
1943.