From The Oz:
Trial will kill me, says Nazi suspect
May 01, 2008PERTH grandfather and accused Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai says he is sick and would not survive being sent to stand trial before a Hungarian military tribunal.
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Nazi murder suspect worried that trial will be the death of him
Suspended sentence for Tassie racist
From the Hobart Mercury:
Scissor attacker walks free
MARIA RAE
April 29, 2008A TEENAGER who launched a racist attack against an Asian student in Hobart’s bus mall walked free today.
Samantha Margaret Scorse, 18, of Berriedale, had stabbed the 15-year-old boy while trying to rob him of his mobile phone.
She had told him to “go back to your own country” before plunging a pair of scissors into his upper arm.
Justice Pierre Slicer said her offensive and racist language was an aggravating factor in the crime.
But he said she was a troubled young woman had also been a victim of violent behaviour.
The judge said she had an alcohol problem and there was a tentative diagnosis she had a borderline personality disorder.
He sentenced her to four months in jail wholly suspended on a two-year good behaviour bond.
Scorse had pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Hobart to attempted aggravated armed robbery.
Take the money and run II
From the Oz:
AEC denies Hanson money error
By Renee Viellaris
April 30, 2008EXPLOSIVE new documents contradict Pauline Hanson’s explanation for “siphoning” $213,000 from her party’s bank account.
In an explanation on her website, Ms Hanson said the cash was transferred because the money was not deposited into the nominated account.
However Australian Electoral Commission records seen by The Courier-Mail reveal party agent Bronwyn Boag personally provided the AEC with the nominated account.
The AEC has denied making an error and said it deposited the cash in the account nominated on an electronic funds transfer form sent last November.
New witness in Nazi murder trial
From the Oz:
Witness emerges for Zentai murder trial
Paige Taylor
April 29, 2008THE Budapest murder trial planned for accused war criminal Charles Zentai will feature testimony from an elderly Jewish survivor of the fascists’ reign in Hungary.
Hungary hopes Mr Zentai will become the first alleged war criminal to be extradited from Australia. He is wanted in Budapest for his alleged role in the murder of 18-year-old Jew Peter Balazs on November 8, 1944, while serving as a warrant officer in the Hitler-aligned Hungarian Army.
The testimony of the witness, who lives in Israel, brings a new element to the case against Mr Zentai. Until now, it was believed all the evidence against him was collected in 1947 by the Budapest People’s Court, which Mr Zentai’s family claims is unfair because the court was corrupt.
But military prosecutor Tibor Acs said one witness repeated his story to prosecution lawyers in 2005.
“There is one witness still alive, or (who) … was alive at the time when we suspended this case (to begin extradition proceedings against Mr Zentai in 2005),” Mr Acs said. “He is in Israel. We questioned him.”
Mr Zentai is accused of killing Balazs, whom he is alleged to have pulled from a tram in the district of Budafok for not wearing a yellow star.
Call for Vic Pol hate crimes unit
From the Herald Sun:
Hate crimes require special unit
Dvir Abramovich
April 29, 2008SWASTIKAS smeared across a synagogue and a Jewish restaurant and obscene graffiti painted at an Islamic college.
A Jewish teenager is hit with a baseball bat and a Jewish father is punched in front of his children.
A Sudanese-born youth is viciously attacked by a gang; rocks and eggs are hurled at Hindu devotees at a temple in Carrum Downs; Indian taxi drivers in Geelong are bashed; threatening letters and e-mails are received by ethnic organisations; windows are smashed at a kosher bakery.
This is not a list from Europe or the US. These events took place in Victoria over the last year. Clearly, racially motivated violence is dramatically on the rise.
Take the money and run!
From the Sunday Tele:
Pauline Hanson accused of taking money from party
By Glenn Milne
April 27, 2008PAULINE Hanson has been accused of siphoning off more than $200,000 in taxpayers’ money from the bank accounts of her own party.
In a recorded telephone call between the former MP and her party treasurer, Ms Hanson admits taking funds because she was not “going to put the money in the hands of anyone else”.
The tape, heard by The Sunday Telegraph, is likely to increase pressure on the Federal Government to crack down on serial campaigners like Ms Hanson.
The $202,440 was paid into the accounts of Ms Hanson’s United Australia Party - the vehicle for her Senate candidacy last year.
Bank records, sighted by The Sunday Telegraph, show transfers of Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) funds out of an account controlled jointly by party officials and Ms Hanson, into another account controlled by Ms Hanson and a close friend.
Citing privacy laws, Suncorp Bank refused to explain how Ms Hanson was able to transfer funds out of an account that required two of the three signatures of the party treasurer, Graham McDonald, his wife Jan and Ms Hanson.
Mr McDonald, a Brisbane businessman, told The Sunday Telegraph he now believed Ms Hanson stood at the election in order to receive public funding.
“I’m so disappointed,” he said. “She never really put the effort into the campaign. If she’s not going to run (again), what’s going to happen to the money?
Lest We Forget (Australia’s shameful role in hiding war criminals)
From the Oz:
No refuge for war criminals
Mark Aarons
April 25, 2008THE High Court decision this week upholding the power of state courts to hear extradition cases under federal law pushes Hungarian Karoly (Charles) Zentai one step closer to a historic hearing at the scene of his alleged war crimes.
The case against Zentai implicates him in the killing of a Jewish civilian during the Nazi occupation of Budapest in 1944 and indicates that he took part in the systematic persecution of Jews. This reminds us yet again of the 50,000 Australian casualties in the fight against Hitler’s criminal regime, who are among the hundreds of thousands of heroes we celebrate every year on Anzac Day.
Neo-Nazi firebug out on parole
From the Oz:
Racist bomb-plotter paroled
By Nicolas Perpitch
April 24, 2008A RIGHT-wing nationalist who conspired to firebomb Chinese restaurants has been released on parole after 14 months in jail.
John Anthony Van Blitterswyk, 56, was convicted in May last year of plotting with neo-Nazi Australian Nationalist Movement head Jack Van Tongeren and two other conspirators to blow up the restaurants in Perth.
Zentai loses High Court appeal
From the Oz:
Zentai loses High Court appeal
Paige Taylor
April 23, 2008PERTH great-grandfather Charles Zentai has lost his High Court appeal, paving the way for Australia’s first extradition of a suspected Nazi-era war criminal.
The High Court of Australia today ruled the nation’s extradition act was valid, meaning the former Hungarian warrant officer will face the Perth Magistrates Court within months.
The prospect of being flown to Budapest to face trial for the murder of teenage Jew Peter Balazs in 1944 now looms large for the retired mental health nurse, 86.
Racist hostel faces legal action
From the Sunday Times:
Hostel facing racist eviction
April 10, 2008A PROMINENT Sydney-based human rights lawyer will represent a group of Aboriginal women who were allegedly asked to leave a backpacker hostel in Alice Springs because of the colour of their skin.
Sixteen Aboriginal women and children from the community of Yuendumu had travelled to Alice Springs in March to attend classes organised by The Royal Life Saving Society Australia.
After checking in at the Haven Hostel at the weekend they were then asked to leave, with management telling them that other guests felt frightened.
Lawyer George Newhouse, who will take their case to Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination commissioner Tony Fitzgerald, today said there was “no excuse” for the hostel’s alleged conduct.
