From the Oz:

War criminal to face extradition hearing
Paige Taylor
September 12, 2006

ACCUSED war criminal Charles Zentai must face an extradition hearing over his alleged involvement in the fatal beating of a teenage Jew in 1944, the Federal Court of Australia has ruled.

Mr Zentai, 84, today lost a court challenge to the authority of magistrates to hear the matter.

The retired mental health nurse, whom family members say is in failing health, was not present in court today.

His daughter Eva sat quietly in the public gallery and, visibly upset, left without making comment.

The Republic of Hungary is trying to extradite Mr Zentai to face a murder charge in Budapest, where he served as a warrant officer for the Hitler-aligned Hungarian army during World War II.

The Federal Court dismissed Mr Zentai’s argument that a magistrate did not have the jurisdiction to hear his extradition and he must face the Perth Magistrate’s Court on September 22.

Hungarian prosecutors allege Mr Zentai was one of three soldiers who beat Peter Balazs to death at the Arena Street barracks on November 8, 1944, then dumped his body in the Danube river.

Balazs, 18, the son of a lawyer in the neighbourhood of Budafok where Mr Zentai grew up, was living on false papers in Budapest in the weeks after the Arrow Cross took power in the city.

Mr Zentai is alleged to have plucked Balazs from a tram and taken him to the barracks.

Two other men were convicted of their involvement in Balazs’ murder at separate trials in the Budapest People’s Court in the late 1940s.

While a warrant was issued by Hungarian authorities for Mr Zentai’s arrest in 1948, he was by then living in Germany and migrated to Australia in 1950.

Mr Zentai maintains his innocence. He continues to accept legal advice not to speak but his children say their father left Budapest for the town of Hanta with his regiment the day before the murder.

They say the two members of Mr Zentai’s unit later convicted of Balazs’ murder and other crimes - Bela Mader and Lajos Nagy - stayed behind when Mr Zentai’s transport unit left Budapest and arrived in Hanta by bus two days later.

Mr Zentai’s older sister Julia Nikoletta, who left Budapest with her brother and his transport unit, backed up the claim in an interview with The Australian last October.

Mr Zentai’s son Ernie Steiner claims Mr Zentai was likely implicated in Balazs’ murder after the war as payback for giving evidence against a superior officer who deserted.

The case came to light after Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff of the Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Centre delivered evidence to Hungarian authorities and urged them to act.