BUDAPEST, Hungary - A 97-year-old Hungarian man suspected of taking part in
the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust was taken into
custody Wednesday, questioned and charged with war crimes,
prosecutors said.
The case of Laszlo Csatary was brought to the attention of Hungarian authorities
by the Simon Wiesenthal Center last year.
Prosecutors decided to charge Csatary
with the "unlawful torture of human beings," a war crime that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. They want him
held under house arrest and his passport confiscated.
Tibor Ibolya, Budapest's acting chief
prosecutor, said Csatary recounted his Holocaust-era activities
to authorities, saying he was following orders and carrying
out his duty.
"The suspect denied having
committed the crimes," Ibolya said, adding that during his testimony Csatary's "attitude toward some of his fellow men of a certain religion ... is not what
we would consider normal."
Prosecutors detained him in an early
morning sweep because they were worried that Csatary may
try to flee. He has lived at least in two separate Budapest
apartments during the last few months.
"We took Csatary into custody
at dawn from an address to which he had no connection until
now," said Ibolya. "He cooperated with investigators."
Csatary's lawyer, Gabor Horvath B.,
said Csatary had moved to a new location because he was tired
of being badgered. On Monday, 40 people held a protest
outside one of Csatary's purported homes but he was nowhere to be seen.
According to a summary of the case released by prosecutors,
Csatary was a police officer in the Slovakian city of Kosice,
at a time part of Hungary.
In May 1944, Csatary was named chief
of an internment camp at a Kosice brick factory from where
12,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi death
camps. Authorities said Csatary was present when the trains
were loaded and sent on their way.
Csatary "regularly" used
a dog whip against the Jewish detainees "without any special reasons and irrespective of the assaulted people's sex, age
or health condition," the prosecutors' statement said.
As one train departed with some
80 Jews crammed into one railcar, Csatary refused a request
by one of the Jews to cut holes in the walls of the wagon
to let more air in, the statement said.
"We took into consideration
the severity of his acts, but we should not forget that
the suspect is due the presumption of innocence," Ibolya said. "In our estimation, he will not be able to escape."
Ibolya said considering Csatary's
age, he was in good physical and mental condition, although
experts had yet to examine him.
Csatary was been convicted in absentia
for war crimes in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and sentenced to
death. He arrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia
the following year, became a Canadian citizen in 1955 and
worked as an art dealer in Montreal.
In October 1997, Canadian authorities
said the 82-year-old had left the country, apparently bound
for Europe, before they had the chance to decide his fate
in a deportation hearing. His citizenship had been revoked
in August and the deportation order was based on his obtaining
citizenship by giving false information.
Canadian authorities alleged that
Csatary had failed to provide information concerning his
collaboration with Nazi occupation forces while serving
with the Royal Hungarian Police and his participation in
the internment and deportation to concentration camps of
thousands of Hungarian Jews.
Ibolya said the investigation into
the Csatary case was continuing and that prosecutors were
waiting for information from Israel, including the possible
testimony of survivors, and Canada.
"I expect this case to
continue for months, even taking into account that we are
treating it as one that we would like to conclude as soon
as possible," Ibolya said.
In Israel, Efraim Zuroff, director
of the Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office, applauded the
arrest.
"When you look at a person
like this, you shouldn't see an old frail person, but think
of a man who at the height of his physical powers devoted
all his energy to murdering or persecuting and murdering
innocent men, women and children," Zuroff told the AP.
Alon Bernstein in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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