By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Hungarian prosecutors have charged Laszlo Csatary with war crimes, including the deportation of Jewish people to Auschwitz in WWII. Authorities state that the 98-year-old man tops the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center’s wanted list.

Nevertheless, some criticize the Hungarian authorities for refusing to extradite Csatary to Slovakia, where a court sentenced him to death in 1948.

In 1944, Csatary commanded the Kosice internment camp, where authorities claim that he beat and whipped approximately 12,000 Jews before sending them to Auschwitz for execution. Additionally, before sending Jews to Auschwitz in a cramped railcar, he refused to allow other officers and soldiers to drill ventilation holes in the railcars’ walls. Following the Second World War, Slovakia sentenced Csatary to death for his involvement in the genocide. However, the Slovak court order was made in abstentia because Csatary had already fled to Canada.

Csatary obtained Canadian citizenship in 1955 by telling authorities that he was a Yugoslav national. Until authorities discovered his lie, Csatary worked as an art dealer in Montreal. In 1997, authorities deported him to his native Hungary.

Until recently, Csatary lived undisturbed in Budapest. Only after a Jewish organization that specializes in bringing suspected Nazi war criminals to justice, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre alerted Hungarian authorities did prosecutors charge Csatary.

The prosecution released a statement that “Csatary willfully assisted in the unlawful execution and torture of the Jews deported from Kosice to concentration camps in territories occupied by the Germans.”

The case of accused Nazi war criminal Sandor Kepiro appears to be precedent for Csatary. In July 2011, Hungary acquitted Kepiro, who admitted his involvement with raids and denied knowledge that such raids involved the massacre of about 400 Jews and 800 Serbs. In a hospital two months later, Kepiro died while prosecutors appealed the decision.

Since July 2012, Csatary has been returned to house arrest in Budapest.

Efraim Zuroff, head of the Wiesenthal Centre’s Jerusalem office, plans to attend the trial in three months. “We welcome the indictment and call upon authorities to expedite the trial in light of the defendant’s advanced age,” Zuroff said. “This is a very strong reminder of the importance of achieving justice even many years after the crimes were committed.”

Lucia Kollarova, a spokeswoman for the Federation of Jewish Communities in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia stated that “We would prefer the war criminal Laszlo Csatary to be extradited to Slovakia. We don’t believe that given his age there is a realistic chance [he would be imprisoned in Hungary].”

Nevertheless, Slovakia has not requested extradition in light of the pending trial.

Weighed against the imminence of death from advanced age, the decision to conduct thorough trials against war criminals in the name of justice will only become more difficult unless we can decide whether any such criminals have suffered since.

For further information, please see:

The Jerusalem Post – Hungary Criticized for Not Extraditing War Criminal – 20 June 2013

Times of Israel – Already-Condemned Nazi Faces New Trial in Hungary – 20 June 2013

The Windsor Star – Hungary Accuses Ex-Canadian Citizen, 98, of Nazi-Era War Crimes – 19 June 2013

CNN International – Hungarian Prosecutors Charge Man with Nazi War Crimes – 18 June 2013

The Independent – Hungary Charges Nazi Police Chief Suspect Laszlo Csatary with War Crimes – 18 June 2013

Reuters – Hungarian Man, 98, Charged with World War II Crimes: Prosecutors – 18 June 2013