FOUR years of legal wrangling has left accused war criminal Charles Zentai back where he started in 2005: awaiting the decision of a federal government minister on whether he should be extradited to face trial for a brutal 1944 murder.

This time, however, the 88-year-old ponders his fate from a Perth prison cell instead of his comfortable suburban home.

His lawyers became involved after former justice minister Chris Ellison announced in 2005 that he had decided to initiate extradition proceedings against the Perth great-grandfather following an arrest warrant issued by Hungary. Since then, Zentai has accumulated legal bills of about $200,000.

Last week, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor began assessing whether Zentai (formerly known as Karoly Zentai) should be surrendered to face allegations he participated in the murder of Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in November 1944. It is alleged that Zentai, then a member of a Hungarian paramilitary unit sympathetic to the Nazi German occupiers, took part in the five-hour beating and torture of Balazs, 18, whose body was dumped in the Danube.

Balazs had been snatched from a tram, apparently for not wearing a yellow Star of David as he was obliged to do under Nazi rule.

If O'Connor rules in favour of sending him back to Hungary, Zentai will become the first alleged Nazi war criminal to be extradited from Australia. A spokesman for O'Connor says a decision will be made as "soon as is reasonably practicable". He says O'Connor will balance the need for a quick decision with the need to make the right decision.

But even with O'Connor's sign-off, the endless legal challenges that have frustrated those seeking justice for Balazs will most likely continue. Zentai's legal team has indicated it intends to appeal to the Federal Court and the High Court against an adverse decision by O'Connor.

Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, from the Jerusalem-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, believes the legal challenges may outlive Zentai. "I'm very worried. They're doing everything to prevent him being put on trial because they realise that if he will be put on trial there's every likelihood he will be found guilty," he says. "It sends a very bad message. The message is: go ahead and do things like this, you can get away with it."

Zuroff says that since Ellison's decision, Zentai has used convoluted legal tactics to delay extradition after initially saying publicly he was happy to prove his innocence in Hungary. The latest legal argument mounted by Zentai's team is contained in last-minute submissions made to O'Connor last week, in which it was claimed that Hungary wanted Zentai only for questioning and therefore his surrender would be illegal.

Zentai's lawyer Denis Barich says the Hungarian government told him in a letter he received last week that it had not charged Zentai with any offence.

"I find it quite extraordinary: here we have an 88-year-old man with a heart condition, an Australian citizen for the last 50 years, being held in custody just because a foreign country from halfway around the world wants to question him," Barich says.

"We believe it's unlawful that Zentai should be extradited when he hasn't been indicted: there's only a suspicion and he's only wanted for questioning."

Zuroff finds this claim absurd and says Hungary wants Zentai to be extradited to facetrial.

Monash University law school senior lecturer Gideon Boas says confusion about whether Zentai has been charged may be attributable to Hungary's civil law system, in which an investigative judge collects evidence before determining whether a trial should proceed before three judges.

"It's not as simple as saying you've been charged (or) you haven't been charged because it's not the same as a police investigation here, which is then referred to the (director of public prosecutions), who then actually issues a charge or set of charges against an accused," Boas says.

Zentai's legal team has also argued that his co-accused, two fellow officers in the Hitler-aligned Hungarian army who were convicted of Balazs's murder, are believed to be dead and so Zentai's lawyers won't be able to cross-examine them.

Zentai's son Ernie Steiner claims that statements made by the officers against his father are prejudicial because they were given under circumstances of torture. "(They) were desperately trying to save their own lives while being beaten to a pulp at the military police section in Budapest," he says. "This whole episode is just so wrong and my father is suffering the extreme consequences."

Barich says cross-examination is an enshrined right in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. "Potentially, if Australia does extradite Zentai under these circumstances, (it) could be in breach of thecovenant, which is very serious," the lawyer says.

According to Boas, this argument has some weight but it would not necessarily prevent Zentai from getting a fair trial and this is the key issue O'Connor has to consider.

He says as a member of the European Union, Hungary is obliged to offer a credible justice system and if it violated any of Zentai's rights, he would have the right of appeal through the Hungarian system and, finally, the European Court.

"All of that suggests to me that the argument he cannot receive a fair trial in Hungary is not very persuasive," Boas says.

He says it would be dangerous for O'Connor to delve into the details of the evidence and make an assessment about whether Zentai would receive a fair trial based on that.

"It's like the minister getting involved in a domestic trial and saying: 'I've reviewed the case file and the evidence that's available and I think from my view it doesn't look very sound.' What he would want to be satisfying himself with is that the structure was in place and the guarantees about the way in which the investigation would satisfy those sort of fundamental rights."

Zentai's supporters have repeatedly maintained those rights would not be possible inHungary and there was the risk that, despite his innocence, Zentai would be wrongly convicted.

Steiner has been researching his father's case since 2005 and maintains Zentai left Budapest the day before Balazs's murder. He says it is an incredibly unjust situation for his frail father to be placed in custody, deprived of the comforts an old man requires, when he has done nothing wrong.

"My father has been left completely vulnerable by the terms of the extradition treaty and has been given grossly inadequate protection as an Australian citizen," Steiner says. "If this experience does not kill him orshorten his life in some way, I will beamazed."

Zuroff claims Steiner and Zentai's other supporters have attempted to play out the case in the wrong forum, the media. "The press is not the place to try a defendant who's accused of murder."

He says the Zentai family's response is typical of families confronted by the shocking news a relative is under suspicion of war crimes. "Families often have no idea what their family members did during World WarII and then all of the sudden there's a knock on the door and good old pop is involved in Nazi war crimes. This is what I told Ernie (Steiner) when I met him. I said: 'I understand this is shocking for you but you have to understand that during World War II all sorts of people who otherwise led normal lives did some pretty terrible things."'

Zuroff says it is Balazs and his family who deserve sympathy, not Zentai.

Balazs's father Dezso, a Budapest lawyer, had sought justice for his son until his death in 1970, claiming Zentai had been involved in the murder and got away with it. Balazs's brother Adam continued his father's quest and passed on letters and evidence he had compiled alleging Zentai's involvement. After the papers reached Zuroff, Zentai became a key case in Operation Last Chance, a campaign to bring remaining Nazi war criminals to justice.

"A letter arrives from Budapest and not only a letter but witness statements which specifically point to him as a guilty party. This is an amazing case," Zuroff says.

"It's precisely the kind of case that we anticipated when we started Operation Last Chance. The idea was to find out about suspects that we didn't know and, frankly, we had never heard of Zentai."

Zentai's legal team says it has faith in O'Connor and has been reassured by what it sees as his rational approach to the issue of asylum-seekers.

If O'Connor decides not to extradite Zentai, Zuroff and Boas say Australia's international reputation will suffer.

"This is a historic decision. Australia is one of the world's great countries and it's simply incomprehensible that (it) would not approve his extradition," Zuroff says.

After the failed extradition of Dragan Vasiljkovic, which the federal government is seeking to appeal in the High Court, O'Connor's failure to surrender Zentai would send the world a wrong message, Boas says.

"We're going to start to be perceived internationally, if not internally, as being a country that's not serious about prosecuting war crimes," he says.

"On the other hand, if the minister does endorse the extradition, that's a positive step and some level of commitment to take these things seriously."

theaustralian.news.com.au