Long having topped the list of most-wanted suspects of Nazi war crimes, Sandor Kepiro eluded authorities for half a century. He died Saturday, weeks after a Budapest court found him not guilty.

Sandor Kepiro, who was earlier this summer acquitted of Nazi war crime charges, died Saturday at age 97.

Kepiro's lawyer said he died in a Budapest hospital, adding that doctors had not provided a cause of death.

Kepiro was acquitted on July 18 by a court in Budapest, where he stood trial for allegedly ordering the execution of at least 30 civilians in the Serbian city of Novi Sad in 1942.

He had previously faced two respective trials in 1944 and 1946 for the alleged crimes and was found guilty, but avoided prison by fleeing to Argentina. Kepiro was eventually tracked down by Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff in the Hungarian capital, where he had returned a half-century later.

Until his trial, Kepiro had topped the Los Angeles based Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals.

dw-world.de