PERTH, Australia – A court ruled Thursday that an 88-year-old
accused of killing a Jewish teenager during World War II is
eligible for extradition to Hungary, rejecting the man's appeal but
giving him two weeks to lodge another.
Charles Zentai is accused by the Hungarian government of
torturing and killing a Jewish teenager in 1944 for failing to wear
a star that would identify him as a Jew.
Zentai, who emigrated to Australia in 1950, says he is innocent
and was not in Budapest when the slaying occurred.
A warrant was first issued for his arrest in 2005.
A court last year ruled that Zentai was eligible for
extradition. He appealed in March, and the extradition ruling was
upheld by a Federal Court judge. This time he appealed to the full
bench of the Federal Court.
He now has the option of appealing to the High Court,
Australia's highest court.
Zentai's bail was renewed, and he was ordered to attend a
cardiologist's appointment later in the day.
Zentai's son, Ernie Steiner, said after the ruling that the
family would consider its options after they read the full
judgment.
"Obviously I am very concerned for my father, and I've had to
ask him some very direct questions, and I'm convinced _ through my
own family history, statements he made in 1994 when my mother was
still alive about the date of his departure from Budapest _ he
wasn't even there," Steiner said. "So this is really a travesty,
this whole thing. We've never been able to present any arguments
about my father's innocence in the courts in Australia."
Attorney-General Robert McClelland has the final say on Zentai's
extradition. McClelland has delegated the decision to Home Affairs
Minister Brendan O'Connor, who has already invited submissions on
the matter.
Steiner said O'Connor could be his father's best chance of
avoiding extradition and said he had already given a 570-page
submission to the minister.
Zentai is listed by the Nazi-hunting U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal
Center among its 10 most wanted for having "participated in
manhunts, persecution, and murder of Jews in Budapest in 1944."