The Nazi war crimes case against Hungarian Sandor Kepiro will likely drag on even after a verdict in his current trial is reached, Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff’s lawyer warned yesterday on the second day of proceedings.
“Given that this is a prestige case for the prosecution and that the defence won’t give up either, one of the parties will surely appeal after the verdict,” Marton Rosta told AFP on the sidelines of the trial.
After the Budapest Municipal Court hands down its verdict, the case could go on to another court “and afterwards, probably to the Supreme Court”, added Rosta, who observed the proceedings.
Judge Bela Varga said yesterday that the verdict, initially expected on May 19, might have to be pushed back a day, as the trial advanced slowly on account of Kepiro’s age.
The 97-year-old seemed worn-out and dozed off several times as testimonies he gave in 2010 – corresponding to his statements from Thursday – were read out in detail.
As a result, the planned hearing of two historians was put off to next Tuesday, when they are to give their accounts of the massacre in Novi Sad in 1942.
Sandor Kepiro, a former Hungarian gendarmerie officer, is accused of “complicity in war crimes” in a raid by Hungarian forces on the northern Serbian town between January 21 and 23, 1942.
He is being held directly responsible for the murders of 36 people during the massacres in which more than 1,200 Jews and Serbs perished.
But while he has admitted to being present in Novi Sad, he maintains his innocence.
The trial, which kicked off on Thursday, could be one of the last of alleged Nazi war criminals, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Zuroff, the Nazi-hunting centre’s director, was sued by Kepiro for libel but won his case on Tuesday in Budapest.
Rosta, who defended Zuroff, said he expected an appeal.

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