The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Austrian authorities to take expeditious legal action against Nazi war criminal Milivoj Ašner, the World War II police chief of the Croatian city of Požega, who played an active role in the persecution and deportation to concentration camps where they were murdered, of hundreds of Jews, Serbs, and Gypsies during the years 1941-1942 and is currently residing in Klagenfurt, to which he fled following his exposure by the Center in June 2004 in the framework of its “Operation:Last Chance” project.
In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter , Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called upon the Austrian authorities to honor the memory of the late Simon Wiesenthal by finally bringing this Nazi war criminal to justice, either by acceding to the Croatian extradition request or by prosecuting him in Austria . He noted that Austria has failed to successfully prosecute a single Holocaust perpetrator in the past thirty years and urged the Austrian justice officials to expedite the case so that justice could finally be achieved.
According to Zuroff:
“The time has come to translate all the words of praise for Mr.Wiesenthal and his quest for justice into practical judicial action. To do otherwise, would turn the glowing praise showered upon him this week into meaningless clichés devoid of any significance.”
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