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Nazi Dies While Serving Time In UK

The only man ever convicted in Britain of Nazi war crimes has died in Norwich prison. Anthony Sawoniuk was serving two life sentences after being found guilty of murdering 18 Jews in the UK`s first war crimes trial. He denied all of the charges against him.

Sawoniuk, a former British Rail ticket collector, was found guilty in 1999 of crimes committed in his home town of Domachevo, Belarus. During his trial at the Old Bailey, London, the court heard how he was involved in the Nazi genocide in eastern Europe more than 50 years earlier.

In February, he was transferred to Norwich Prison from Kingston Jail in Portsmouth and was held in a unit for elderly life prisoners. Police say the 84-year-old Sawoniuk died of natural causes and his death was not being treated as suspicious, though a routine coroner`s inquiry would take place.