Washington  - A US immigration judge granted a stay Friday evening to John Demjanjuk, a war-crimes suspect from the Nazi era, who was to be deported to Germany Sunday.

Judge Wayne Iskra of the US Immigration Court in Arlington, Virginia, ordered the stay and decided to reopen deportation proceedings, broadcaster CNN reported, quoting Demjanjuk's US lawyer John Broadley.

Demjanjuk, who turned 89 Friday, filed a last-minute emergency court motion to stop his deportation, arguing that he was too ill to travel and stand trial. His bid to stay in the US was to avoid likely prosecution for his role in the murder of 29,000 Jews.

The emergency motion, filed Thursday, claimed that transporting him to Germany would be the equivalent of torture because of his age and medical problems, local media reported.

"In the four years since his deportation was ordered, his health has seriously deteriorated," Broadley said, adding that his client suffers from pre-leukemia, kidney trouble, spinal problems and gout.

His German lawyer and family say he suffers from kidney stones and a bone marrow disease.

Earlier Friday, his lawyer in Germany, Guenther Maull, told dpa, the German news agency, that he knew nothing about the motion and that in any case, his client had "no more legal means" at his disposal to block his deportation.

German evidence suggests that Demjanjuk, then 23, was a Nazi guard at Sobibor concentration camp, at a location that is now part of Poland, from March till the end of September 1943. He apparently worked at the camp while at least 29,000 Jews were put to death there.

After World War II he lived in Germany as a refugee. In 1952 he changed his first name from Ivan to John and moved to the United States.

Demjanjuk was acquitted in 1993 by the Israeli Supreme Court of charges that he worked at a different death camp, Treblinka, saving him from the death sentence of a lower court.

Munich prosecutors issued a warrant three weeks ago for the arrest of the Ukrainian-born man, who has been stripped on his US citizenship and is now stateless.

Washington cannot prosecute him over the allegations, but has been eager to expel the former US car worker.

Demjanjuk was to be picked up by federal agents Sunday and flown to Munich for a Monday arrival, German officials said. (dpa)