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Suspected Nazi war criminal László Csatáry dies in Hungary awaiting trial

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The Guardianpublished 12/08/2013 at 12:44 BST

98-year-old was charged with assisting in the deportation of thousands of Jews to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.

László Csatáry 1992

László Csatáry, 98, in Budapest in 2012 after being questioned by police on charges of war crimes. Photograph: Bea Kallos/EPA

 

A 98-year-old suspected war criminal has died in Hungary awaiting trial for torturing Jews and helping to send them to Auschwitz.

László Csatáry, a former police officer indicted in June, died on Saturday in a Budapest hospital, said his lawyer, Gábor Horváth.

Hungarian authorities have said Csatáry was the chief of an internment camp for Jews in Kosice, a Slovak city then part of Hungary, in 1944, beating inmates with his bare hands and a dog whip. He had also been charged with assisting in the deportation of thousands of Jews to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. He denied the charges.

Csatáry was sentenced to death in absentia in Czechoslovakia in 1948 for similar war crimes. A Budapest court in July suspended the case against Csatáry because of double jeopardy, as the charges filed by Hungarian prosecutors were similar to those in his 1948 conviction. Hungarian prosecutors appealed against the decision and a ruling was pending.

Csatáry's case and his whereabouts were revealed in 2012 by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish organisation which hunts Nazis who have yet to be brought to justice.

In 1949, Csatáry arrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, became a Canadian citizen in 1955 and worked as an art dealer in Montreal. He left Canada in 1997 after it was discovered that he had lied about his Nazi-era past to obtain citizenship and authorities were close to deciding his fate in a deportation hearing.

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Jerusalem office, said the organisation was "deeply disappointed" by Csatary's death ahead of his possible trial in Hungary, where he had lived since leaving Canada, and said the case cast doubts on Hungary's commitment to punishing war criminals.

"It is a shame that Csatáry, a convicted … and totally unrepentant Holocaust perpetrator who was finally indicted in his homeland for his crimes, ultimately eluded justice and punishment at the very last minute," Zuroff said in a statement.

Csatáry was born on 4 March, 1915, in the central Hungarian village of Many. Information about his family and funeral arrangements were not available.


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