19th June 2013 thesun.co.uk
Hungarian ex-policeman accused of deporting Jews to Nazi death camps
By BRIAN FLYNN
A NAZI police chief wanted for sending 15,700 Jews to death camps was sensationally charged with war crimes and torture today after being tracked down by The Sun.

Laszlo Csatary - the most wanted World War II fugitive still alive - was put under house arrest when we snared him at his bolthole in Hungary.

He now faces justice in what may be the last ever high profile World War II war crimes trial as Holocaust campaigners praised The Sun for exposing him.

Investigators say Csatary was a sadistic police commander in charge of a Jewish ghetto who oversaw the deportation of 15,700 Jews to the Auschwitz death camp.

The 98-year-old now faces justice after Hungarian prosecutors confirmed they had charged him with war crimes after studying a dossier of evidence handed over by The Sun.

Bettina Bagoly, spokeswoman for the Budapest Chief Prosecutor said the trial of Csatary - who denies the charges - would begin within three months because it was deemed of "special importance".

She confirmed: "He is charged with the unlawful execution and torturing of people thus committing war crimes partly as a culprit, partly as an accomplice.

"With his actions, Laszlo Csatary deliberately provided help to the unlawful executions and torture committed against Jews deported to concentration camps."

The indictment says Csatary ran an internment camp for Jews in Kosice - a city then part of Hungary - in 1944, and beat them with his bare hands and a dog whip.

He also allegedly refused to allow ventilation holes to be cut into the walls of a railcar crammed with 80 Jews being deported.

Prosecutors, who requested evidence from Slovakia, Canada and Israel, have also asked for the rules of his house arrest to be tightened to prevent him fleeing.

Our investigations team sparked a worldwide call for his arrest when we tracked him down at a two-bedroom apartment in a smart district of Budapest in July last year.

Csatary's time began running out when The Sun's investigation team received a tip-off that he was still alive and living in Hungary.

We then worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre to bring him to justice as part of their Operation Last Chance campaign to hunt down the most evil World War II Nazis still alive.

They passed on crucial information from a well-placed source which led us to an apartment where he had been living.

my View - By BRIAN FLYNN

OUR operation to snare Laszlo Csatary took many months and led us down a few blind alleys — but the decision to charge him shows the perseverance was worthwhile.

We worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre to bring him to justice. Their information was crucial in hunting him down.

It is now imperative Hungarian prosecutors bring Csatary to trial quickly.

Time must not be allowed to claim this man before survivors and relatives of the Auschwitz victims see justice finally meted out in court.

thesun.co.uk