Federal Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor is refusing to give accused war criminal Charles Zentai a complete copy of advice he received prior to making his decision to extradite the 88-year-old to Hungary.

Federal prosecutors advised the Government that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute WA man Charles Zentai for a nazi war crime, according to documents released under a court order.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions' advice was given to Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor before he authorised Mr Zentai's extradition to Hungary last year - but was edited out of documents originally released to his legal team.

Mr O'Connor's extradition order will be challenged in the Federal Court next week by a pro bono legal team led by Malcolm McCusker QC.

Mr Zentai, who is now a frail 88-year-old, spent two months in Hakea Prison last year and is living in Willetton on $75,000 bail.

His son, Ernie Steiner, questioned why the Government's lawyers "blacked out" sections of a department submission quoting the DPP's advice. "There were very large sections of the submission that were redacted - or blacked out," he said.

"It was only when Mr McCusker applied for the documents in the Federal Court that this came to light."

The Commonwealth DPP's office refused to discuss the case and the minister's office did not return calls yesterday.

The unedited document shows that in 2005, Australian Federal Police asked the DPP whether Mr Zentai should be tried under the War Crimes Act.

The prosecution office advised that while there was no legal barrier to prosecuting Mr Zentai in Australia, "on the information presently known there was insufficient evidence to make out a prima facie case against Zentai".

The AFP did not provide a full brief of evidence for a "comprehensive assessment" of whether a case could be made out against Mr Zentai, who is accused by the nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre of being involved in the murder of a Jewish student in 1944 in Budapest. Mr Zentai was a conscript in the Hungarian army but claims he was not in Budapest at the time.

The two witness statements implicating Mr Zentai in the murder were both from men who are now dead, and therefore could not be cross-examined in an Australian court about claims they were tortured or induced to make the statements.

"The CDPP understood that there was no known eyewitness to support the allegation," the department advice said.

"This assessment was said to be based fundamentally upon the absence of available witness testimony to support any allegation of murder."

The department advised Mr O'Connor that he should accede to the Hungarian Government's request to hand over Mr Zentai for interrogation regardless of the DPP's advice, or the fact that formal charges had not been entered against him.

"In these circumstances, any potential difficulties that may be indentified with prosecuting Zentai in Australia for an offence allegedly committed in Hungary may not be difficulties which arise in Hungary under its different criminal justice system," the submission said.

Mr Steiner said extradition could be a death sentence for his father, who had lived as a model Australian citizen for 60 years.

"No reason whatsoever has been advanced why, if the Hungarian authorities merely wish to 'investigate' and question my father, they should not do so by coming to Australia," he said.

"My father would not refuse to speak to any credentialled investigator."

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