Wiesenthal Center Expresses Guarded Optimism As Indicted Hungarian World War II Criminal Is Incarcerated in Perth, Australia

October 22, 2009

Wiesenthal Center Expresses Guarded Optimism As Indicted Hungarian World War II Criminal Is Incarcerated in Perth, Australia

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed guarded optimism that justice will finally be achieved in the case of indicted Hungarian Nazi war criminal Karoly (Charles) Zentai, who was put in prison this afternoon in Perth, Australia pending his extradition to Hungary to face charges. In a statement issued today in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that it had already submitted the incriminating evidence against Zentai to the Hungarian and Australian authorities in 2004, after he was discovered in the framework of its “Operation: Last Chance” project.

According to Zuroff:

“For five years Mr. Zentai has succeeded in postponing his trial, despite his proclaimed innocence, by mounting a variety of technical challenges totally unconnected to his case. Given the serious charges against him, we very much hope that this extradition will be approved as quickly as possible, so that justice can finally be achieved. What Minister O’Conner and the Australian public must remember is that Mr. Zentai is currently elderly, but in the prime of his life he is accused of committing the murder of an innocent eighteen year old boy simply because he was Jewish.”

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