16 July 2012 bbc.co.uk
Hungary urged to act against 'Nazi criminal' Csatary

The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center has urged Hungary to act against a top wanted war crimes suspect, believed to be living in Budapest.

British newspaper The Sun says its reporters have found Laszlo Csizsik-Csatary living in a Budapest apartment.

A reporter tried to ask him about his past but he replied: "No, no, go away... I didn't do it", then slammed the door, The Sun reports.

Now aged 97, he is accused of assisting in the murder of 15,700 Jews.

Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center has submitted new evidence to the prosecutor in Budapest "regarding crimes committed during World War II by its Number One Most Wanted suspect Laszlo Csatary," a statement from the Center said.

The Center says Mr Csatary served as a senior Hungarian police officer in the Slovak city of Kosice, then under Hungarian rule and called Kassa. He allegedly played a key role in the deportation of about 300 Jews from Kosice to Kamenetz-Podolsk in Ukraine, where almost all were murdered in the summer of 1941.

Mr Zuroff had already handed evidence to the Hungarian authorities last year implicating Mr Csatary in the deportations of thousands of Jews from Kosice and its environs to the Auschwitz death camp in early 1944.

"This new evidence strengthens the already very strong case against Csatary and reinforces our insistence that he be held accountable for his crimes. The passage of time in no way diminishes his guilt and old age should not afford protection for Holocaust perpetrators," Mr Zuroff said.

Dozens of Jewish students protested outside Mr Cstatary's building on Monday, calling for Hungary's authorities to start proceedings against him.

The chief prosecutor's office is studying the evidence and may bring charges, the BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest says.

After the war Mr Csatary escaped to Canada but disappeared in 1997 after being stripped of his Canadian citizenship.

The Sun says it tracked him down with help from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose Operation Last Chance is aimed at bringing surviving Nazi war criminals to justice.

bbc.co.uk