Budapest- The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced that its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, has today submitted the names of two Hungarians suspected of Nazi war crimes to prosecutors in Budapest. In a statement issued in Jerusalem, the Center noted that the suspects in question, whose names and current whereabouts were not publically released for security reasons, were suspected of active participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Both were discovered in the framework of the Center’s “Operation: Last Chance” project (run in conjunction with the Targum Shlishi Foundation of Miami, Florida) which offers financial rewards for information which facilitates the prosecution and punishment of Holocaust perpetrators.
To date, the Center had received the names of 14 Hungarian suspects, four of which (including the two submitted yesterday) have been submitted to Hungarian prosecutors, since the project was launched in Budapest on July 13, 2004. The initial two names submitted have yielded an extradition request for former Hungarian army officer Charles Zentai from Australia and the opening of an official investigation for genocide (against former Arrow Cross youth leader Lajos Polgar).
In that respect, the Center wants to note the excellent cooperation received hereto from the Hungarian judicial authorities. “We hope and expect that the good cooperation forged between the Center and the Hungarian prosecutors in the case of Zentai and Polgar will continue in the new cases submitted today,” said Zuroff after this meeting at the office of the Prosecutor-General.
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