BUDAPEST (AFP)---Hungary's Jewish community welcomed on Tuesday the questioning of a suspected Nazi war criminal by Hungarian prosecutors in connection with the killings of civilians in Serbia in 1942.

"It can be exemplary if Sandor Kepiro is sentenced for his war crime," Peter Feldmajer, the head of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities told Hungarian newswire MTI.

" The passage of time is no redemption for such crimes," he added.

Feldmajer's comments came after the Budapest prosecutor's office announced on Monday that it had called Kepiro in for questioning, on suspicion of committing a war crime.

According to the prosecutor's statement, the man identified as Sandor K.
was an accomplice in the killing of four people in Novi Sad, Serbia, on January 23, 1942.

The Simon Wiesenthal centre also accuses Kepiro of organising a mass murder in January 1942 in the Serbian city, which was then under Hungarian occupation.

Kepiro was convicted in 1944 and 1946 by a Hungarian court, but never did time. He denies any allegations made against him.

In 1996, he returned to Hungary after decades in hiding in Argentina.

Last year, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor called for a formal investigation into Kepiro's actions, estimating that he had "consciously and willingly taken part... in the murder of at least 2,000 Jews and Serbs" in Novi Sad.

In May, another Nazi war crime suspect, John Demanjuk, ranked third on the Wiesenthal centre's latest list, was deported from the United States to stand trial in Germany.

He faces charges that he assisted in the murder of more than 29,000 Jews.

The Wiesenthal centre's list includes another Hungarian, Karoly (Charles) Zentai, now an Australian citizen, who is accused of participating in the murder of Jews in Budapest in 1944.

ejpress.org