The Federal Government is refusing to reveal the legal advice it received on whether to prosecute Charles Zentai, an elderly Perth man accused of an anti-Semitic war crime during World War II.

Lawyers for 89-year-old Mr Zentai, who has been fighting extradition to Hungary for the past six years, have been denied access to the documents.

It was revealed in April that the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had told the Australian Federal Police in 2005 there was no prima facie case against Mr Zentai because any witnesses to the alleged murder of a Jewish student in 1944 were dead.

Mr Zentai faces extradition despite the advice because under Australia's treaty with Hungary, no evidence of a crime is required.Mr Zentai's solicitors were last week refused access to the DPP's advice and the AFP's brief.

"Our clients are not prepared to produce the documents you seek on the grounds that disclosure would reveal communications that are subject to legal professional privilege," an Australian Government Solicitor letter said.

A previous claim of privilege over the DPP's advice was rejected last year by Federal Court judge Neil McKerracher, who accused the Government of being unfair in the way it edited documents released to Mr Zentai.

"(The department) disclosed almost all the advice with the exception only of the relatively small amount of redacted material dealing with two key areas," Justice McKerracher said last year.

"The areas were important to Mr Zentai's submission."

The Government appealed in January against Justice McKerracher's ruling that Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor had been wrong to approve Mr Zentai's extradition .

The judge overturned Mr O'Connor's extradition order, saying it was based on advice from his department that contained "an accumulation of errors". Mr Zentai's son, Ernie Steiner, said he was aghast that Mr O'Connor continued to pursue the extradition without regard for whether his father was guilty of a crime.

In a letter to Mr Steiner in November 2009, Mr O'Connor said: "Australia is able to make and accept extradition requests from Hungary on a 'no evidence' basis which does not require provision of 'prima facie' evidence of the alleged offence for which the extradition is sought."

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