Anthony Sawoniuk

Sawoniuk died in Norwich Prison of natural causes in 2005, aged 84.

Sawoniuk had, by that time, become a British citizen. He was tried at the Old Bailey in London in 1999 on two specimen charges of murder with regard to the murder of Jews in his German-occupied hometown during World War II. The jury found him guilty of one charge by unanimous decision and of the other by a ten to one majority. A further two charges of murder were withdrawn by the prosecution due to procedural errors with evidence. However, both of the murders of which Sawoniuk was convicted were individual elements of two group murders: in the first Sawoniuk, according to eyewitnesses, shot 15 Jews; in the second he shot three Jews.

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 it was also the first time that a British jury had travelled overseas to view the scene of a crime. In 2000, the House of Lords refused him permission to appeal.

After the war Sawoniuk settled in England in 1946, posing as a Polish patriot. In 1951 he wrote a letter to his half-brother, Nikolai. 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 1994 for authorities to realise that Sawoniuk, then working for British Rail, was one of the people on the KGB list. He was then duly arrested.

After taking part in the murder of the Jewish community in his home town, Sawoniuk served in the SS until November 1944 when he defected to the Polish II Corps in the British Eighth Army. After the war, he settled in Britain, became a British citizen, and became the first (and currently the only) person to be convicted under the UK's War Crimes Act 1991, when he was found guilty of war crimes for the murder of 18 Jews in 1999. Sawoniuk received a life sentence, and died in prison six years later.

In 1944 Sawoniuk fled westwards when the Red Army advanced towards Domaczewo and in July 1944 joined the German armed forces, serving in the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. He deserted from the SS in November 1944 and changed sides, using his Polish birth certificate to join the 10th Hussar Regiment of the Polish II Corps.

Anthony Sawoniuk, born Andrei Sawoniuk (Belarusian: Андрэй Саванюк, Andrej Savaniuk; 7 March 1921 – 6 November 2005) was a Belarusian Nazi collaborator from the town of Damačava in Brest Region.