PERTH, Australia – An 88-year-old man accused by Hungary of Nazi war crimes during World War II surrendered to Australian police Thursday after exhausting his appeals against extradition.
Source: AP
- Australian citizen Charles Zentai is accused by the Hungarian government of being one of three men who tortured and killed a Jewish teenager in 1944 for failing to wear a star identifying him as a Jew.
- Zentai, who emigrated to Australia in 1950, says he is innocent and was not in Budapest when the slaying occurred.
- He was taken to Perth's Hakea prison on Thursday after surrendering, two weeks after the Federal Court granted him a 14-day stay on a ruling that allowed his extradition to Hungary.
- Zentai's lawyer, Denis Barich, said there would be no further legal appeals until the attorney-general made a decision on the case.
- Attorney-General Robert McClelland has the final say on Zentai's extradition but has delegated the decision to Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor.
- If the federal government orders his extradition, Zentai will resume the legal appeals process and could appeal to the country's High Court, Barich said.
- Barich said Hungarian authorities had told McClelland they wanted to question Zentai, not charge him.
- "Why should he be forced to go to Hungary, with all the danger to his health that such a trip would bring, when he can be questioned here in Australia?" Barich told reporters Thursday.
- Zentai's poor health has kept him out of custody since a court ruled last year that he was eligible for extradition. He appealed in March and again earlier this month.
- Zentai is listed by the U.S.-based, Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center among its 10 most wanted for having "participated in manhunts, persecution, and murder of Jews in Budapest in 1944."
- A warrant was first issued for his arrest in 2005.
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