Washington  - The US government has begun proceedings to deport an 88-year-old man accused of aiding the Nazis while working as a police officer in Ukraine during World War II, the Justice Department said Monday.

As a member of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (UAP) in occupied L'viv, Ukraine, John Kalymon allegedly murdered at least one Jew and participated in violent operations to expel Jews from their homes and send them to labour or extermination camps.

Kalymon, whose original first name was Iwan, served in the Nazi- sponsored UAP from May 1942 to March 1944. A charging document seeking his deportation was filed in a US Immigration Court in Detroit, Michigan. Kalymon lives in the nearby city of Troy.

"These charges once again demonstrate the resolve of the Department of Justice to deny safe haven in this country to human rights violators, no matter how long ago they committed their heinous acts," said Lanny A Breuer, an assistant attorney general.

"The ultimate removal of John Kalymon will close a very painful chapter and provide a measure of justice to his victims and their families," he said.

The Justice Department did not identify a possible destination country, but L'viv was a part of Poland prior to the war. Nazi German forces were aided by the UAP in confining more than 100,000 Jews to a ghetto in the city and carried out periodic operations to reduce the ghetto's population.

Kalymon fled with retreating German forces in 1944 and immigrated to the United States in 1949, concealing his service in the UAP, the Justice Department said. He obtained US citizenship in 1955.

A federal judge stripped him of his citizenship in March 2007 after concluding Kalymon participated in the wartime persecution of Jews. (dpa)