An ex-Nazi guard who has asked that he be permitted to stay in the United States, where he's lived since 1956, has lost a court appeal.

Anton Geiser, of Sharon, Mercer County, had appealed the decision issued by U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone in September 2006.

The mandate denying the appeal, issued by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was returned to the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh yesterday.

Mr. Geiser, who served as an armed SS guard at a German concentration camp during World War II, petitioned the 3rd Circuit to rehear his case, but that request was denied on Aug. 20.

The federal government filed a complaint against Mr. Geiser in 2004 claiming he was not entitled to citizenship because he "personally assisted the Nazi government in persecuting persons because of race, religion or national origin."

Mr. Geiser, who became an American citizen in March 1962, argued that the U.S. policy at the time he entered the country allowed former concentration camp guards provided they were not war criminals.

It was not known if Mr. Geiser would file a petition to have his case considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.