Nazi hunter says Serbia should seek extradition of 3 WWII suspects;
blasts Austria and Hungary
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC | Associated Press Writer
8:08 PM EDT, September 15, 2008
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) _ A leading Nazi hunter urged Serbia on Monday to
seek the extradition of three World War II war-crimes suspects and
blasted Austria and Hungary for failing to help bring two of them to
justice.
Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, said at a news conference with Serbian officials that he was
helping them provide evidence against Peter Egner, who lives in the
United States, Milivoj Asner, who lives in Austria, and Sandor Kepiro of
Hungary.
Egner allegedly served in a Nazi unit that killed 17,000 civilians in
Serbia during World War II. Asner is wanted for WWII atrocities against
Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in Croatia.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center says Kepiro, 94, was convicted by Hungarian
courts but never punished for his alleged role in Hungarian forces'
killings of some 800 Jews and 400 Serbs in the wake of the Nazi
occupation of Yugoslavia.
Asner caused a stir this summer when he was seen watching a soccer match
in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt. Critics contend Austria is
sheltering him.
Serbia should seek the extradition of the three "as soon as possible"
because it is "a decision of great importance to bring those people to
justice," Zuroff said.
Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, said that Serbia will
seek the extradition of the three after collecting evidence and
launching legal procedures.
"The issue in these cases is not finding the suspects, is not finding
the evidence," Zuroff said. "The problem has been the lack of political
will by the countries in which these people reside."
"I'm referring primarily to Austria and Hungary, and not the United
States where there are serious efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to
justice," he said.
Phone calls to the Hungarian and Austrian justice ministries went
unanswered Monday evening.
Austria's Justice Ministry said this year that it is reviewing a request
from Zuroff to make a fresh assessment of Asner's physical and mental
state and prove he is suffering from dementia as experts have ruled in
the past.
Without a new evaluation declaring him physically and mentally fit, "our
hands are tied," ministry spokesman Thomas Geiblinger said at the time.
This summer, the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal court to revoke
Egner's American citizenship, saying he had served as a guard and
interpreter with the Nazi-controlled police in Belgrade. Egner, 86, can
only be extradited to Serbia if he is stripped of his U.S. citizenship.
