Wiesenthal Center Blasts Latest Delay in Case of Accused Nazi Murderer Facing Extradition From Australia to Hungary

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the decision of an Australian court to postpone for at least six months a decision which had hereto prevented the extradition from Australia to Hungary of Charles Zentai, a Nazi collaborator accused of murdering a Jewish teenager in Budapest during the Holocaust. In a statement issued today in Jerusalem, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff expressed his deep frustration and exasperation with the Australian courts which have allowed a purely technical legal issue, in no way connected to the facts of the case, to prevent the extradition to stand trial of an accused Holocaust murderer.

According to Zuroff:

“By failing to resolve the technical challenge mounted by Zentai’s lawyers and postponing the decision by half a year, the Australian courts have significantly increased the likelihood of an accused Nazi murderer escaping trial and punishment. It is as if the court is entirely oblivious to the responsibility it should feel to Zentai’s victim, Peter Balazs and his family, who for decades sought to bring his killer to justice, and instead of expediting the extradition process have allowed its manipulation to help Zentai avoid his day in court.”

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