Sun Oct 11 20:26:51 EST heraldsun.com.au
No use-by date for evil

THEY'RE rounding up the last of the much-loved, snowy-haired grandads that might sizzle sausages for the family on Sundays but stand accused of unalloyed evil.

Perth's Charles Zentai and Ohio's John Demjanjuk are presumed innocent unless a court determines otherwise, but it has taken years to get them to face justice.

Demjanjuk, 89, is charged with being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people at Sobibor death camp in Poland during World War II.

Now if I were charged with 27,900 murders, I'd demand my day in court as soon as possible, but Demjanjuk, a retired car factory worker, has fought tooth and nail for years to avoid his.

He has been deported to Munich where his trial starts next month.

Zentai, 87, last week lost his latest appeal in the Federal Court against extradition to Hungary to face charges that in Budapest in 1944 he bashed to death 18-year-old Peter Balazs, because the boy was not wearing the yellow star Nazis insisted Jews must.

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The disciplined officers of the Royal Hungarian Army took mischief like that quite seriously as they enthusiastically did Hitler's bidding. Zentai was said to have been one. He denies being in town at the time.

Justice for the alleged victims of these two does not yellow and fade like the charges sheets they wish to avoid. If Damjanjuk and Zentai are found guilty, their day in court will be just a stopover to a few years in jail and eternity in hell.

heraldsun.com.au