Alleged war criminal loses fight against extradition from Australia

Alleged war criminal loses fight against extradition from Australia
2 hours, 36 minutes ago



PERTH, Australia (AFP) - An 86-year-old alleged war criminal accused of murdering a young Jewish man in World War II lost a court battle Wednesday against extradition from Australia to Hungary. A Perth magistrate ordered that Charles Zentai be taken into custody after finding that he was eligible for extradition.
Zentai is accused of beating to death teenager Peter Balazs in 1944 in Budapest while serving as a soldier in the army of his native Hungary, then allied with Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.
"I determine that Mr Zentai is eligible for surrender to the Republic of Hungary and therefore he is remanded in custody," said magistrate Barbara Lane.
Zentai's lawyers said they would make a special application for bail and would apply for an appeal to be heard in the Federal Court.
The allegations against Zentai, which he denies, have been brought by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jewish human rights organisation known for tracking down alleged Nazi war criminals.
Zentai, who had migrated to Australia after the war, was living quietly in the western Australian city of Perth before the Hungarian government began extradition proceedings in March 2005.
Prosecutor Michael Corboy told the court that Zentai recognised Balazs, 18, who was not wearing the compulsory yellow star identifying him as a Jew, as someone from his own home town.
Zentai and two accomplices took Balazs to a military base and assaulted him from three o'clock in the afternoon until the evening before throwing his body into the Danube river, Corboy said.
Zentai's son, Ernie Steiner, issued a statement saying his father was completely innocent and had not been in Budapest on the day of Balazs' death in November 1944.
Steiner said his father was never a Nazi, detested the German occupation of Hungary and had many Jewish friends.
If Zentai is sent back to Europe, he would be the first Australian to ever be extradited over alleged war crimes.

Alleged war criminal loses fight against extradition from Australia - Yahoo! News

 

About time.... hope he rots in hell

 

Good to see that even now, so many years later, they are catching war criminals from ww2.