Wednesday's decision by
the Australian Supreme Court to reject a legal challenge by suspected
Hungarian Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai to prevent his extradition
to stand trial in Budapest for alleged crimes during World War II
puts an end to one of the most bizarre efforts ever mounted to block
the prosecution of a Holocaust perpetrator.
In a 6-1 decision, the court ruled that the magistrates in Perth,
where Zentai resides, have jurisdiction to rule on the extradition
request submitted by Hungary, thereby ending a legal saga that delayed
Zentai's prosecution for more than two years.
The Zentai story began in the summer of 2004, shortly after the
Wiesenthal Center launched its "Operation: Last Chance" project
that offers rewards for information that facilitates the prosecution
and punishment of Nazi war criminals in Hungary. A letter sent to
our Jerusalem office revealed that in 1944, Karoly Zentai, a Hungarian
army officer serving in Budapest, apprehended an 18-year-old Jew
named Peter Balasz who was not wearing the mandatory yellow star,
took him to his barracks and together with two fellow officers beat
him to death, and subsequently dumped his corpse in the Danube River.
After the war, Zentai's role in the murder was revealed, but by
then he had escaped to the American zone of occupied Germany. For
reasons that remain unclear, a Hungarian request for his extradition
was ignored, allowing Zentai to emigrate to Australia.
The person who sent us the letter with the testimonies of numerous
eyewitnesses to the crime was Adam Balasz, the victim's brother,
who was prompted by Operation: Last Chance to appeal to us to find
Peter's killer. All he knew, however, was that in the early 1950s
Zentai was reported living in Australia, but he had no idea if Zentai
was even alive, let alone where he was now located.
Within a relatively short time, I was able to determine that Karoly
Zentai, now known as Charles, was alive and well in Perth. When we
exposed him, Zentai denied his guilt and even expressed willingness
to "go to Hungary to clear his name," but that willingness
rapidly disappeared when in March 2005, Hungary issued a warrant
for his arrest and asked Australia to extradite him.
Under such circumstances, the procedure is fairly simple since the
Australian court does not address Zentai's guilt or innocence, but
rather whether the Hungarian extradition request meets the local
requirements for such a procedure. In theory, Zentai should have
been extradited to Hungary long ago, but a technical challenge mounted
by another suspect living in Perth led to a legal imbroglio that
has prevented Zentai's trial for more than two years.
A lawyer representing Vincent O'Donoghue, an Irishman wanted for
fraud in Dublin, claimed that the magistrates in Perth, who were
supposed to rule on his extradition to Ireland, could not in fact
do so. His argument was based on the fact that they pledged allegiance
to the state of Western Australia rather than to the federal republic,
and since extradition is a federal matter, they did not have jurisdiction
to rule in O'Donoghue's case.
Zentai's lawyers realized that this claim could be applied to his
case as well and joined O'Donoghue's appeal, which was finally rejected
on Wednesday morning.
The practical implication is that Zentai's extradition can now proceed
as originally expected, with his appeal and the signature of the
Australian attorney-general the only barriers to his day in court
in Budapest.
Over the years, I have heard many different alibis offered by Nazi
war criminals regarding such cardinal issues as identity and/or criminal
responsibility, but I have never encountered a situation like that
of Zentai, in which a purely technical challenge launched by a common
criminal nearly derailed the prosecution of a Holocaust perpetrator.
Thank God that scenario has apparently been thwarted, although the
possibility still exists that the past two years of delay may ultimately
spare Peter Balasz's alleged murderer his long-overdue trial and
punishment.
jpost.com
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