The court decided not to take up the case, cllearing the way for Demjanjuk's trial to begin.

Demjanjuk was extradited to Germany earlier this year to stand trial for being an accessory to murder at the Sobibor concentration camp during World War II.

Anja Kesting, the Constitutional Court spokeswoman, said the court would not take up Demjanjuk's challenge because he had not adequately shown that his basic rights had been violated. His lawyers told Associated Press that he would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Last week, Demjanjuk, 89, was deemed fit for trial by medical officials.

Prosecutors in Munich have accused him of being a guard at the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland and have charged him as an accessory to the murder of 29,000 people.

Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk headed the list of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's 10 most-wanted suspected war criminals. They say he pushed men, women and children into gas chambers at the Sobibor death camp. Demjanjuk denies any role in the Holocaust.

Demjanjuk was deported by US authorities from his home in Ohio on May 12.

av/Reuters/dpa/AP
Editor: Michael Lawton