LEADING Perth barrister Malcolm McCusker QC has taken up the fight of accused war criminal Charles Zentai for no fee in an attempt to help the 88-year-old avoid extradition to Hungary.

Mr McCusker's first task will be to argue in the Federal Court for access to the unedited documents on which Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor based his extradition ruling in the case.

Mr O'Connor ruled last November that Mr Zentai was eligible for extradition on war crimes charges, but his office has told Mr Zentai the departmental documents in the case cannot be completely released due to legal professional privilege.

Mr Zentai's legal team has only an edited version of the 60-page document.

"We need to at least know what the reason was behind the minister's decision," Mr McCusker said. "They're refusing to give it to us . . . so much for open government."

If the Federal Court rules that the unedited version can be released, the document would help Mr Zentai's legal team at an appeal scheduled for March.

Mr McCusker said they had strong grounds to appeal, including that Hungary only wanted to question Mr Zentai and had not charged him with his alleged offence of participating in the murder of a Jewish teenager in 1944.

"Why don't they come here and question a sick old man, rather than make him go all the way to Hungary? And facilities would be made available for them to do that," Mr McCusker said yesterday.

"We say there's no basis to extradite simply for questioning. It's got to be a person whose accused of an offence, and he hasn't been accused or charged."

Another ground for appeal was that if Mr Zentai were put on trial it would be unfair, because there were no living witnesses who could testify. "It strikes me as pretty dangerous," Mr McCusker said.

Mr Zentai's son Ernie Steiner welcomed the barrister's involvement, and said it had given his father's case more credibility. He said the family was very appreciative that Mr McCusker had taken the case pro bono, because his father's legal bills were close to $200,000.

When Mr Zentai was a 23-year-old warrant officer in the Hitler-aligned Hungarian army, he is alleged to have taken part in the murder of Peter Balazs.

It is alleged Mr Zentai took part in the five-hour beating and torture of Balazs, whose body was dumped in the Danube.

theaustralian.com.au