Csatary
Photo: AFP
Slovakian Jews seek Nazi criminal's extradition
Jewish community calls on Slovakian authorities to request Hungary to extradite the 97-year-old Laszlo Csatary so that he can be tried in Slovakia
Slovakia's Jewish community has called on the local authorities to request that Laszlo Csatary,
a 97-year-old alleged Holocaust
war criminal under house arrest in Hungary,
be extradited to and tried in Slovakia.
"We urge the Slovak authorities to seek extradition of Csatary in Slovakia so that he could stand trial here," Jaroslav Franek, spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities, told AFP on Tuesday.
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Csatary, whose full name is Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary, is suspected of abusing Jews and helping deport thousands of them in 1944 while he was a police officer in Kosice – a city that was part of Hungary at the time.
Slovakia's Justice Ministry said it is studying the case.
Csatary has been convicted in absentia for war crimes in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and was sentenced to death. He thought refuge in Canada until 1995, when the authorities discovered his true identity. He then fled to Hungary.
Hungarian authorities charged Csatary last week with "unlawful torture of human beings." He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
