Australian of the Year nominee Malcolm McCusker, QC, says
he is appalled by the government's determination to extradite
one of its own citizens for what he says are unfounded
war crime allegations.
West Australian barrister Mr McCusker has long acted pro bono for elderly Perth
man Charles Zentai in his fight against extradition
to Hungary.
Hungarian
military authorities want to question Mr Zentai,
89, over the murder of Jewish teenager Peter
Balazs in Nazi-occupied Budapest in November
1944.
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Story continues below Earlier this month, the
government announced it would appeal against
a Federal Court ruling that Home Affairs Minister
Brendan O'Connor's decision to extradite Mr Zentai
was outside his jurisdiction.
The judge
ruled Mr O'Connor failed to properly consider
whether it would be "oppressive" to extradite Mr Zentai due to his age, ill health and the severity of the sentence
he might face.
Mr McCusker,
who is WA's nominee for Australian of the Year,
said there was no reason for Mr Zentai to be
extradited as he was not facing any charge.
He said that
in any case, the Commonwealth Director of Public
Prosecutions had looked at all the evidence and
determined there was no case to be answered.
"You
look at all that and say what are you doing extraditing
to a Hungarian prison for purposes of interrogation,
an Australian citizen who's been an Australian
citizen for half a century," Mr McCusker told AAP.
The 72-year-old
barrister said he had received letters criticising
him for standing up for someone correspondents
call a Nazi war criminal, a label he says is
not corroborated by evidence.
It has been
nearly six years since Mr Zentai was first arrested
and his extradition ordered, but the application
is yet to be successful, with numerous appeals
through a host of courts.
Mr McCusker
said the latest appeal will be a waste of money.
"I'm
absolutely appalled because you have to question,
as an Australian citizen and taxpayer, what's
motivating the government to do this?" he said.
"To
continue to harass a very old and feeble man
against who there is no evidence and in the face
of a very strong court finding by the judge in
the Federal Court."
Mr McCusker
was nominated as Australian of the Year for his
philanthropic work, having donated $20 million
to charity through the McCusker Charitable Foundation.
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