The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed its fullest support for Alen Budaj, who in the framework of its “Operation: Last Chance” project exposed the World War II crimes of Croatian Nazi war criminal Milivoj Asner, who sued Budaj for libel in a trial which opened today in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.
In a statement issued today in Jerusalem, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff expressed his fullest confidence in the documents presented by Alen Budaj which unequivocally prove Asner’s complicity in the persecution and deportation to concentration camps of hundreds of Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies from the Croatian city of Slavonska Pozega, many of whom were murdered by the Ustasha (Croatian fascists).
According to Zuroff:
“It is utterly ridiculous that Alen Budaj, who has done Croatia an enormous service by researching and proving the wartime crimes of Ustasha war criminal Milivoj Asner, finds himself accused and on trial, when almost an entire year has passed since the Wiesenthal Center exposed Asner in the framework of “Operation: Last Chance,” and he has still not been indicted, let alone extradited from Austria, to which he fled last year following his exposure. We urge the Croatian authorities to finally charge Asner with war crimes and take all the necessary legal measures immediately to ensure that he will be held accountable for his crimes.”
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