The chief Nazi hunter of the Los
Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said Monday that the
Austrian authorities have been exposed as liars after a top
Nazi war criminal deemed unfit by the Austrians to stand
trial due to his "failing health" was spotted sipping drinks in an Austrian cafe during one of the Euro 2008 soccer
championship gatherings.
The case of Milivoj Asner, 95, who served as police chief in Croatia's wartime
Nazi puppet regime and is suspected of an active role in
the persecution and deportation to concentration camps of
hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies during World War Two
resurfaced after the popular British tabloid, The Sun, exposed
Asner walking the streets of Austria with his wife, and mingling
with throngs of football fans in Klagenfurt for the Euro
2008 matches.
Asner is number four on the Wiesenthal
Center's list of "most wanted Nazis." Three years ago, Austria refused a Croatian extradition request on the grounds
that Asner was "unfit" to stand trial or even be questioned for health reasons.
"Austria has long had a
reputation as a paradise for war criminals and now they've
been caught in the act," said Dr. Ephraim Zuroff, the director of the Israel office of the Wiesenthal
Center, and the organization's chief Nazi hunter.
Zuroff said that the article "exposed
the lie" that the Austrian authorities have been peddling for years, noting that the
suspected Nazi war criminal is clearly enjoying a life that
many hundreds of victims were denied when they were sent
off to be murdered.
"If this man is well enough
to walk around town unaided and drink wine in bars, he's
well enough to answer for his past," Zuroff said.
Following the publication of the expose,
which included video and photos, The Wiesenthal Center demanded
that the Austrian Government immediately extradite the top
wanted Nazi without further delay.
"The photos, and video
clips also made available to this office, make it abundantly
clear that Asner is in good health, lucid and able to get
around on his own, in contradiction to the finding of an
Austrian court which ruled that he cannot be extradited to
stand trial in Croatia due to ill health," Zuroff wrote in a Monday letter to Austrian Justice Minister Dr. Maria Berger.
"Under these circumstances,
there is absolutely no justification for the continued refusal
to extradite this wanted Nazi war criminal to the country
where he committed his nefarious crimes, so that he can finally
be held accountable for the hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies
whom he deported to concentration camps, where the majority
were brutally murdered."
jpost.com
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