The decision to extradite an 88-year-old Perth man to Hungary over the alleged murder of a Jewish teenager in 1944 was correctly dealt with, lawyers for the Department of Home Affairs have told the Federal Court.

Charles Zentai has launched a final challenge against a decision by Home Affairs Minister Brendon O'Connor to allow the extradition.

Jeremy Allanson, acting for the department, said Mr O’Connor was not incorrect in deciding to authorise the extradition.

"It is our submission that it was correctly dealt with by the Department in the way it was presented to the Minister and the Minister was correct in arriving at his decision that Mr Zentai was an extraditable person," Mr Allanson told Justice Neil McKerracher.

Mr Zentai' lawyer, Malcom McCusker, has said that the extradition decision appeared to override all discretionary considerations such as Mr Zentai’s age, his frailty, ill-health and Australian citizenship.

But Mr Allanson said an extradition treaty between Australia and Hungary meant Australia had an obligation to extradite people when requested, especially if they were facing an extraditable offence.

Mr Allanson said issues personal to Mr Zentai such as his age, health and that he was an Australian citizen would have been open to the Minister but "nonetheless Hungary was seeking his extradition for an offence which was a very serious offence".

"It was always open to the Minister to say 'I'm not satisfied' or 'what about his age? What about his health?'," Mr Allanson said.

He told the court that when the Minister made the decision to allow Mr Zentai's extradition, he formed the opinion that Mr Zentai was an extraditable person based on information provided to him.

The court was told that Australian authorities received a warrant for Mr Zentai and a letter in March 2005 from Hungarian authorities requesting Mr Zentai's extradition for the purposes of prosecution.

Mr Allanson said Hungarian authorities had a "well-founded suspicion" which was based on witness statements implicating Mr Zentai in the

"killing of a teenager on the basis of race", the court was told.

Mr McCusker said yesterday Mr Zentai should not be extradited because he was not charged or accused of the murder of a Jewish teenager and Hungarian authorities simply wanted to investigate his client.

Mr Allanson said that when Mr O'Connor made his decision, he considered all relevant material and he was under the impression criminal proceedings had started and that there was a well-founded suspicion that an offence had been committed.

He said if there was an error in the advice to the respondent, it did not make the decision invalid because the error was not the fault of the decision-maker.

The hearing continues.

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