WIESENTHAL CENTER DENOUNCES REFUSAL BY LITHUANIAN COURT TO PUNISH CONVICTED NAZI WAR CRIMINAL DAILIDE

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced a decision handed down this morning by a Lithuanian court not to implement the sentence of five years’ imprisonment meted out in March 2006 to former Saugumas [Lithuanian Security Police] operative Algimantas Dailide for his role in crimes against Jews and Poles in Vilnius during World War II. In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center expressed its indignation and frustration with the Lithuanian judicial authorities who in his words “are simply incapable of punishing any Lithuanian for crimes committed against Jews during World War II.”

According to Zuroff:

“Despite the extremely large number of Lithuanians who actively participated in the mass murder of Jews both in Lithuania and outside of their own country, and the presence in Lithuania over the years of numerous Holocaust perpetrators, independent Lithuania has hereto failed to punish a single local Nazi war criminal. In this respect, Lithuania has proven to be one of Europe’s most Nazi-friendly countries, a place where only Jewish anti-Nazi partisans have to fear from the authorities, who prefer to take legal action against them rather than against Hitler’s most willing henchmen outside Germany and Austria.”

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