A Budapest court on Tuesday acquitted Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office, of libel in a case brought against him by Hungarian war-crime suspect Sandor Kepiro.

The 97-year-old Kepiro had sued Zuroff for naming him as a war criminal.

The municipal court said in a statement on its website that Zuroff had accused the Hungarian one-time police officer on substative grounds and in good faith in order to pressure the Hungarian authorities into investigating the case.

A Hungarian patrol led by Kepiro was involved in a raid of Novi Sad, a town in northern Serbia, in January 1942, which led to the deaths of over 1,200 civilians. Prosecutors charge unidentified members of the patrol, including Kepiro, of killing four people.

Kepiro's trial is scheduled to begin on Thursday.

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