Story highlights The 98-year-old man is accused of being responsible for the deaths of 44 people in 1944

Polish authorities are seeking his arrest and extradition to stand trial for war crimes

(CNN) A 98-year-old Minnesota man accused of committing war crimes during WWII could face arrest and extradition to Poland.

The man, identified by his family as Michael Karkoc, is accused of being responsible for the deaths of 44 people in 1944, Polish officials said in a statement.

Karkoc's family denied the allegations against him. "It's insane, it's uncompressible," his son, Andriy Karkoc, told reporters in a news conference Saturday. "We talk a lot about fake news but this is fake history."

The younger Karkoc called for the judge to release all evidence against his father, who he says suffers from Alzheimer's disease. "We ask the governments of Poland, Ukraine and the United States of America to allow humanity to prevail and to bring an end to this baseless attacks on a 98-year-old man," he said.

Polish investigators had been working since 2013 to identify a commander of the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion, a Nazi paramilitary police organization, who ordered his solders to kill residents and burn the buildings of three rural villages near Lublin. The commander's actions are considered war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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