THE
HAGUE, Netherlands - Dutch justice authorities Thursday issued
a Europe-wide arrest warrant for a former SS camp guard accused
of murdering at least 22 Jews and who has been living for
more than half a century in Germany.
A spokesman for prosecutors in The Hague said the move underscores
their determination to bring Dutch-born Klaas Carel Faber
to justice.
Faber, now 88, is living in the southern German city of Ingolstadt
and is a German citizen.
In Berlin, Justice Ministry officials confirmed the warrant
had been received and would be sent on to prosecutors in
Munich.
Born in 1922 in Haarlem, Faber murdered at least 22 Jews
as well as freedom fighters, according to Dutch records,
but has been protected until this day by the so-called "Fuehrer
decree."
In 1943, Adolf Hitler issued a decree granting automatic
German citizenship to those Dutch who volunteered for the
Waffen SS.
Under current German law, no German national can be extradited.
In order to highlight the injustice, the Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Jerusalem has included Faber on its list of most-wanted
Nazi war criminals.
"
We call on the German authorities to arrest Faber immediately
so that he gets his much deserved punishment," the
center's director, Efraim Zuroff, said Thursday.
"
The fact that this murderer of so many innocent people has
been protected by Germany for decades is absurd and sends
out the message that even somebody who has committed numerous
murders can get away with it," he
continued.
The last Dutch extradition request for Faber was turned down
in 2004 by Germany, but the legality of that decision has
been questioned by German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.
The Dutch move Thursday posting a European arrest warrant
was taken in an action co-ordinated with Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger,
who for her part has been pressing justice authorities
in the southern state of Bavaria to reopen the case against
Faber.
Courts in Germany failed to rule against Faber, with judges
saying the evidence was insufficient.
In the Netherlands Faber and his brother Piet were convicted
and sentenced to death for the murder of several inmates
of a transit camp in Westerbork in 1944 by a Dutch court.
But whilst Piet was executed, Faber's sentence was commuted
to a life prison term in 1948.
Faber then managed to escape his Dutch prison and in 1952
fled to Germany with the help of a former colleague and
a German policeman.
vancouversun.com
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