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France demands Nazi war criminal's arrest at 97

The French foreign ministry joined Nazi hunters and Jewish community groups in calling on Hungarian prosecutors to arrest Laszlo Csatary, 97, for his role in the deportation of 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz.

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Hungary was under pressure last night (Monday) to prosecute the world's most wanted surviving Nazi war criminal after France demanded that "there can be no immunity" for those accused of carrying out the Holocaust.

The French foreign ministry joined Nazi hunters and Jewish community groups in calling on Hungarian prosecutors to arrest Laszlo Csatary, 97, for his role in the deportation of 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz.

"We believe that Nazi criminals, wherever they are, must answer for their acts before justice," a spokesman for the French foreign ministry said.

Csatary, who tops the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's most-wanted list of Nazi war criminals, was discovered living in Budapest under his own name.

He had been living in Canada but left when he was found by investigators in 1995.

Csatary fled Europe after being sentenced to death in absentia in 1948 by a Czech court. He was found guilty of crimes committed while he was a police chief in Kosice, then part of Hungary.

He was renowned for his brutality and was said to have beaten women with a whip and forced them to dig holes with their hands.

During the war, he deported thousands of Jews to death camps and is accused of complicity in the killing of at least 16,000 people.

Csatary has officially been under investigation by the Hungarian authorities since September 11, 2011. It was reported locally that he has been under police surveillance since April.

Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the investigation was taking a long time because the crimes "took place 68 years ago in an area that now falls under the jurisdiction of another country".

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem, handed more evidence to Hungarian prosecutors last week however, highlighting Csatary's key role in the deportation of about 300 Jews. Almost all were murdered.

He said he was frustrated by the lack of action by Hungarian authorities.

"This man is healthy and he drives his own car," he said. "Nothing has happened and I am very frustrated.

"At Csatary's age health can deteriorate from one day to another. We must act quickly.

"The passage of time does not diminish his guilt and old age should not provide protection for the perpetrators of the Holocaust."

Jewish students protested in the Budapest street where Csatary lives last night, demanding his immediate arrest. "We are proud to do our part in bringing the world's attention to this evil man and his horrific crimes," said Andi Gergely, of the European Union of Jewish Stu-dents.

Hungarian prosecutors said the investigation was problematic, as the inquiry had to cover events in 1944 when Kosice was in Hungary. It is now in Slovakia.

"It took place 68 years ago in an area that now falls under the jurisdiction of another country - which also with regard to the related international conventions raises several investigative and legal problems," a statement said.

Serge Klarsfeld, a Nazi-hunter, doubted that Hungary would prosecute Csatary, even as Paris urged Budapest to launch legal proceedings against him.

The government of Viktor Orban, the right-wing prime minister of Hungary, declined to comment on the case.

"The Hungarian government has always supported the exhaustive exploration of past crimes," a spokesman said. "It calls for the exploration of the truth and the punishment of the guilty."
 

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