Attorneys for convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk have asked a U.S. appeals court to restore his citizenship posthumously.

The attorneys in their request of April 12 asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to reinstate Demjanjuk’s citizenship or to order a hearing on the question, the Associated Press reported.

Government prosecutors have until next month to file a response to the lawsuit.

Demjanjuk died last month at 91 in an old-age home in southern Germany, where he was free while he appealed his conviction last year by a Munich court for his role in the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp in Poland. He reportedly was buried in secret in an undisclosed location in the United States on March 31.

Born and raised in Ukraine, Demjanjuk immigrated to the United States following World War II.  — jta