Charles Zentai

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Charles Zentai, born 1922 in Hungary, is accused of a Holocaust-related war crime. Zentai has been resident in Perth, Australia for many years after living in American- and French-occupied zones of Germany.

Zentai is accused of the murder of Peter Balazs, an 18-year old Jewish man, in November 1944. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is heading the effort to extradite him to Hungary to stand before a military tribunal. The case has been a long-held passion of Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, who presented his allegations against Zentai to Hungarian prosecutors.

On July 8, 2005, Zentai was arrested by the Australian Federal Police to await an extradition hearing. Zentai's family say the 86-year-old widower, who has heart disease and peripheral neuropathy, would not survive the trip to Hungary. When first declared a suspect during the war and a warrant issued for his arrest Zentai, at that time living in Germany, expressed his willingness to go to Hungary to clear his name.

On April 16, 2007, his appeal against the extradition case was dismissed by a full bench of the Australian Federal Court^[1]. Simon Wiesenthal Center director Efraim Zuroff said he was very pleased that Zentai's appeals had been rejected and that "the extradition process can finally proceed".

Zentai, who denies the charges against him, was serving in the Hungarian Army at the time. It is alleged that he was one of three Hungarian soldiers who killed Péter Balázs in Budapest by beating him to death, and then threw his body into the Danube River. It is claimed they attacked Balazs because he wasn't wearing a yellow star. But on October 1, 2007, new evidence came to light: a testimony by Zentai's military commander which was used at a trial in the Budapest People's Court in February 1948. This commander blamed a fellow soldier who was later convicted.[1]

The cost of Zentai's High Court challenge has already reduced his life savings to AU$20,000 and he says he will probably have to sell his home to pay further legal bills.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Zentai loses appeal against extradition hearing", ABC Online, April 16 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-16.