AT SITE OF JANUARY 1942 MASSACRE, EMOTIONAL CALL FOR HUNGARY TO PROSECUTE KEPIRO

Novi Sad, Serbia- The Simon Wiesenthal Center today urged Hungary to prosecute convicted but unpunished former gendarmerie officer Dr. Sandor Kepiro for his role in the mass murders carried out by Hungarian forces in Novi Sad in January 1942. In a speech read at the annual memorial for the victims of the massacre, the Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff emphasized the inordinate amount of time which has passed since the Wiesenthal Center discovered that Kepiro, who was convicted but never punished for his participation in the mass murder in Novi Sad, was living in Budapest at 78 Leo Frankel St. unpunished for his crimes.

According to Zuroff:
"Last year, I stood here with you full of hope that one of the Hungarian officers who had played an important role in implementing the murders, and had been discovered several months previously by the Wiesenthal Center living in Budapest, would be punished for his crime. And on that day, a year ago, we all had joined together in the heartfelt call for justice. Hungarian gendarmerie officer Dr. Sandor Kepiro must pay for his crimes!!!

And I ask myself, what has to happen for justice to be achieved? How is it possible that someone as obviously guilty as Kepiro, someone who was convicted for his role in 1944 by a Hungarian court is still a free man, walking the streets of Budapest?

Let today's gathering scream out for justice in the memory of the victims and let us never rest until the guilty are punished for their crimes. That must be the message from Novi Sad on the 66th anniversary of those heinous murders."

For more information call 00-972-50-7214156