Bratislava (dpa) - Slovakian Justice Minister Tomas Borec said Monday that he wanted suspected Nazi war criminal Laszlo Csatary to face trial in Slovakia, after being arrested in his native Hungary earlier in July.

Borec said he had a "personal interest" in Csatary‘s extradition, but told Slovakian media that a court in the city of Kosice would have to decide whether to file a formal request.

Csatary, 97, allegedly performed acts of torture on Jewish inmates in a camp in 1944, when he was police chief of the Hungarian-occupied town of Kosice, in modern-day Slovakia.

He was arrested in Budapest on July 18, after Israel‘s Simon Wiesenthal centre submitted new evidence regarding his alleged role in the wartime deportation of Jews.

In 1948, Csatary was sentenced in absentia to death at a trial in Kosice. Slovakia has since abolished the death penalty. dpa ct hm mat Author: Christoph Thanei

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