Serbian Foreign Minister Draškoviæ Expresses Support for Wiesenthal Center Initiative Seeking Extradition of Three Nazi War Criminals

Jerusalem:  Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draškoviæ, in a meeting held last night in Jerusalem with the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, expressed his unqualified support for the recent initiative of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to encourage Serbia to seek the extradition of three Nazi war criminals.
       
The criminals under discussion are:

1.      Hungarian gendarmerie captain Dr. Sándor Képiró, who has already been convicted twice for this role in the murder of over 1,000 civilians in Novi Sad in January 1942 and is currently living in Budapest.

2.      Croatian Milivoj Ašner, who as police chief of Požega played an active role in the persecution and deportation to Ustasha concentration camps where they were killed of hundreds of Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies. He is currently living in Klagenfurt, Austria.
3.      Croatian Ivo Rojniæa, who as governor of Dubrovnik played an active role in the persecution and murder of hundreds of Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies. He is currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Zuroff welcomed the support of Foreign Minister Draškoviæ and said that a proactive stance by the Serbian government might ultimately make the difference whether or not these Nazi criminals would finally be brought to justice.

All three cases have been the focus of intensive recent efforts by the Wiesenthal Center, with the latter two having been discovered by the Center in the framework of its “Operation: Last Chance” project which offers financial rewards for information which facilitates the prosecution and punishment of Holocaust perpetrators.

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