Alleged Nazi war criminal loses extradition appeal

From The Australian, April 16, 2007, by Elizabeth Gosch ...

EXTRADITION proceedings against Charles Zentai will resume after the accused Nazi war criminal lost an appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court today.

The 85-year-old Hungarian man has been fighting efforts by the Hungarian Government to extradite him from Perth to face a charge of murdering a teenage boy in Budapest during World War II, since he was arrested in July 2005. In the latest instalment of his marathon legal battle, Mr Zentai appealed a Federal Court decision against him late last year. He and accused Irish fraudster Vincent O’Donoghue had argued the Perth Magistrates Court did not have the authority to deal with their cases. Judge Antony Siopis ruled against them in September last year and yesterday Mr Zentai's appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court failed, paving the way for him to face an extradition hearing at Perth Magistrates Court. Justice Brian Tamberlin dismissed the appeal in a video-link. “The appellants have failed to make out their case,” he said.

However Mr Zentai's son Ernie Steiner said his father was likely to appeal the decision in the High Court. “I think it will be most likely that we will take it to the High Court. We just need to discuss the matter with the lawyers,” Mr Steiner told The Australian. “We were quite hopeful that the decision would go my father's way. We still don't think it is hopeless.” Mr Zentai was not in court yesterday due to ongoing health problems. The great-great-grandfather suffers from a neurological disorder called peripheral neuropathy and also has heart trouble. “He is still deteriorating,” Mr Steiner said. “He has been hospitalised several times in the past few months.”

Mr Zentai was a warrant officer in the Hitler-aligned Hungarian army in 1944 when 18-year-old Peter Balazs was taken from a tram for not wearing the Yellow Star of David. It is alleged Mr Zentai and two accomplices took the man to an army barracks in Budapest and tortured him before killing him and dumping his body in the Danube on November 8, 1994. Mr Zentai maintains he left Budapest with his regiment on November 7, 1944.