Lawyers for accused Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai have
taken his case to the Human Rights Commission as part of
his bid to avoid extradition to Hungary.
Zentai is on bail, living with his family in Perth's southern suburbs, after
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor last year announced
he would be surrendered to Hungarian authorities to answer
a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.
He is alleged to have been one of
three soldiers who beat and tortured Jewish teenager Peter
Balazs to death - for not wearing a yellow star - in Budapest
in November 1944.
Zentai, 88, was arrested in Perth
in 2005 after Hungary issued the warrant.
The magistrates and federal courts
in Australia have since ruled there are no obstacles to his
extradition.
Zentai's lawyer Denis Barich last
week asked the Human Rights Commission president to intervene
in the matter.
In an application to HRC president
Catherine Branson, Mr Barich said the Zentai case qualified
as a discrimination and human rights issue because of the
need for Hungary to ensure it could provide for a fair trial.
It said the commission could investigate
whether any trial might be jeopardised by the absence of
any relevant witnesses and whether a trial could be prejudiced
by Zentai's political leanings or nationality.
The application also questioned whether
possible coercion or torture were grounds for investigating
statements made to Hungarian authorities in the late 1940s
which could be used against Zentai.
Mr Barich told AAP that while an HRC
intervention could not override any of the legal processes
involved in Zentai's extradition, it could assist the courts
and help Zentai pay for his fight against extradition.
He said Mr Zentai was a man of "limited
means" and much of his legal assistance was being provided pro bono.
Mr Barich sought the HRC's intervention
on the basis that "the applicant is a pensioner without legal aid who is not in a financial position
to afford funds necessary for adequately researching and
accessing the numerous human rights documents and authorities
that the case requires".
A hearing of Zentai's appeal against
the minister's decision to allow his extradition will begin
in the Federal Court on March 31.
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