One of the world's most wanted Nazi criminals died in exile in Syria four years ago and will never be brought to justice, a leading Nazi hunter has said.

Alois Brunner, who would have been 102 years old today, is allegedly buried in Damascus, where he is said to have been working as a government adviser on torture.

Brunner has frequently been described as the 'right hand man' of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust, and was responsible for the deportation of 128,500 Jews to death camps.

Dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office and chief investigator in Brunner's case, said he is '99 per cent sure' Brunner is dead and buried in Syria, after receiving new intelligence from a 'reliable source.

A former German secret service agent who had served in the Middle East has confirmed what the organisation had feared, Dr Zuroff told the BBC, which is that Brunner has been dead for at least four years.

During the Second World War, Brunner sent 47,000 Jews in Austria, 44,000 in Greece, 23,500 in France and 14,000 in Slovakia to camps where most were murdered. 

'[Brunner] played a key role in the implementation of Hitler's Final Solution to murder Jews,' Dr Zuroff told the BBC. 

MOST WANTED NAZI CRIMINALS 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of 'most wanted' Nazi War Criminals 2014.

1. Gerhard Sommer (age 93. Last known location: Germany)

2. Vladimir Katriuk (age 93. Last known location: Canada)

3. Hans Lipschis (age 95. Last known news: Arrested in Germany, 2013, found unfit for trial due to dementia).

4. Ivan Kalymon (age 93. Found in United States, lost US citizenship, died in 2014 while awaiting extradition to Germany)

5. Søren Kam (age 93. Last known location: Germany)

6. Algimantas Dailidė (age 93. Last known news: Deported from USA to Germany in 2004. Sentenced to five years imprisonment, but was diagnosed 'medically unfit to be punished'.)

7. Theodor Szehinskyj (age 90. Last known location: United States)

8. Helmut Oberlander (age 90. Last known location: Canada)

Brunner escaped to Syria in the early 1950s, where he is said to have lived and worked using the name Dr. Georg Fischer.

Brunner was tried and sentenced to death in absentia in France in 1954, but as the Syrian government refused to acknowledge that Brunner resided in the country, he was never extradited. 

He is believed to have been working for President Hafez al-Assad, the father of current president Bashar al-Assad, as a government adviser on torture, security and terrorism.

Several attempts were made on his life by Israeli intelligence, and he lost several fingers and an eye in two separate letter bombings organised by Mossad in the 60s and early 80s. 

The death of Brunner came to light after he was removed from the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of 'most wanted' Nazi War Criminals, which is published annually.

'He was a notorious anti-Semite, sadist, fanatic Nazi,' Dr. Zuroff told the New York Times today.

'The only known interview we have with him was to a German newsmagazine in 1985, in which he was asked if he had any regrets, and he said, "My only regret is I didn't murder more Jews".'

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