Hungary: Alleged Nazi war criminal Laszlo Csatary, 97, arrested
Alleged Hungarian war criminal Laszlo Csatary leaves the Budapest Prosecutor's Office after he was questioned by detectives on charges of war crimes during WWII and prosecutors ordered his house arrest in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, July 18, 2012. / AP Photo
(AP) BUDAPEST, Hungary - A 97-year-old Hungarian man suspected of abusing Jews and helping deport thousands of them during the Holocaust was taken into custody Wednesday, questioned and charged with war crimes, prosecutors said.
The case of Laszlo Csatary was brought to the attention of Hungarian authorities last year by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization active in hunting down Nazis who have yet to be brought to justice.
In April, Csatary topped the organization's list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals.
Prosecutors decided to charge Csatary with the "unlawful torture of human beings," a war crime that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Csatary's lawyer, Gabor Horvath B., said that a judge, acting on a request from prosecutors, ordered his client to be confined to house arrest for a maximum of 30 days. Horvath B. said he had appealed the ruling, which also opened the way for authorities to confiscate Csatary's passport.
As he left a Budapest courthouse Wednesday afternoon following the house arrest hearing, Csatary walked slowly down a flight of steps, leaning on a companion for support. He wore a thin jacket and tried to cover his face from photographers and TV crews. He did not speak with reporters but appeared bewildered by the attention.
Nazi war criminal, 97, allegedly found in Hungary
Activists and sympathizers of the European Union of Jewish Students stand with joined hands in front of Laszlo Csatary's hideaway building, only few kilometers from his home in Budapest on July 16, 2012, during their protest against Csatary.
/ GettyImagesTibor Ibolya, Budapest's acting chief prosecutor, said Csatary recounted his Holocaust-era activities to authorities during questioning, saying he was following orders and carrying out his duty.
"The suspect denied having committed the crimes," Ibolya said, adding that during his testimony Csatary's "attitude toward some of his fellow men of a certain religion ... is not what we would consider normal."
Prosecutors detained Csatary in an early morning sweep because they were worried he may try to flee. He has lived at least in two separate Budapest apartments during the last few months.
"We took Csatary into custody at dawn from an address to which he had no connection until now," Ibolya said. "He cooperated with investigators."
Csatary's lawyer said his client had moved to a new location because he was tired of being badgered. On Monday, 40 people held a protest outside one of Csatary's purported homes but he was nowhere to be seen.
According to a summary of the case released by prosecutors, Csatary was a police officer in the Slovakian city of Kosice, at a time part of Hungary.
In May 1944, Csatary was named chief of an internment camp at a Kosice brick factory from where 12,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. Authorities said Csatary was present when the trains were loaded and sent on their way.
Csatary "regularly" used a dog whip against the Jewish detainees "without any special reasons and irrespective of the assaulted people's sex, age or health condition," the prosecutors' statement said.
As one train departed with some 80 Jews crammed into one railcar, Csatary refused a request by one of the Jews to cut holes in the walls of the wagon to let more air in, the statement said.
"We took into consideration the severity of his acts, but we should not forget that the suspect is due the presumption of innocence," Ibolya said. "In our estimation, he will not be able to escape."
Ibolya said considering Csatary's age, he was in good physical and mental condition, although experts had yet to examine him.
Csatary was been convicted in absentia for war crimes in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and sentenced to death. He arrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia the following year, became a Canadian citizen in 1955 and worked as an art dealer in Montreal.
In October 1997, Canadian authorities said the 82-year-old had left the country, apparently bound for Europe, before they had the chance to decide his fate in a deportation hearing. His citizenship had been revoked in August and the deportation order was based on his obtaining citizenship by giving false information.
Canadian authorities alleged that Csatary had failed to provide information concerning his collaboration with Nazi occupation forces while serving with the Royal Hungarian Police and his participation in the internment and deportation to concentration camps of thousands of Hungarian Jews.
Ibolya said the investigation into the Csatary case was continuing and that prosecutors were waiting for information from Israel, including the possible testimony of survivors, and Canada.
"I expect this case to continue for months, even taking into account that we are treating it as one that we would like to conclude as soon as possible," Ibolya said.
In Israel, Efraim Zuroff, director of the Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office, applauded the arrest.
"When you look at a person like this, you shouldn't see an old frail person, but think of a man who at the height of his physical powers devoted all his energy to murdering or persecuting and murdering innocent men, women and children," Zuroff told the AP.
Zuroff, often described as the world's top Nazi hunter, was able to locate Csatary with the help an unidentified, paid informant.
In 2002, he launched "Operation Last Chance," which offers rewards for information on suspected Holocaust-era war criminals and lobbies for governments to put them on trial.
Hungarian prosecutors say Zuroff first told officials about Csatary in September 2011, meeting with them as recently as July 9 to provide more data about him.
While prosecutors acknowledge Zuroff's role in the case, they have also criticized him for alerting the press in April about his findings.
Ibolya, Budapest's acting chief prosecutor, said that by making the case public, Zuroff may also have put Csatary on alert, increasing the chance that he would try to escape and "greatly endangering the success of the investigation."
A year ago, another elderly suspect uncovered by Zuroff's reward program, Sandor Kepiro, was acquitted of war crime charges by a Budapest court because of insufficient evidence. Kepiro died in September at age 97, while the ruling was being appealed.
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"He appeared bewildered by the attention". He's bewildered by the rice crispies cracking in his bowl in the morning. Sheesh.
The concept of the existence of so-called "statutes of limitations" is a man made legal construction.
If my Mother who is now 96 years old had been a victim of Laszlo Csatary, even if all he had done to her was to have whipped her across her angelic face with the heavy dog whip he always carried on his belt, I would have spent my entire life attempting to locate this sadistic Nazi to ensure he paid for his crimes.
Clearly all the people who see this man as just a poor old grandfather figure do not have any relatives who numbered among his almost 16,000 victims who died agonizing deaths in the gas chambers or were worked to death and died of starvation, as walking skeletons.
Many readers are quite obviously unaware that after WW II, this man, who fled to Canada, was tried "in absentia" by a war crimes tribunal and sentenced to death.
I defy any living person who had relatives who perished in Auschwitz concentration camp, to step forward and say "it is time to move on- we must let bygones be bygones".
Some crimes against humanity rank on such a scale of depravity as to make it necessary that the perpetrators be hunted to the ends of the earth and made to stand trial. Let the few survivors who still exist, who were victims of this twisted Nazi's cruelty, be allowed, at long last, before they die, one last opportunity to face Laszlo Csatary, in open Court, and state before the whole civilized world what crimes this man committed.
It is highly rare that a Nazi of such lofty army rank is found, so long after the Holocaust, who is still in such a high state of mental and physical health. Indeed, investigative photographers followed this Nazi as he went about a four hour shopping spree on foot, stopping along the way to meet a female friend for coffee.
The accused possesses the health of a seventy year old. Even criminals confined to wheel chairs have been brought into courts for far lesser crimes than this evil sub human committed.
This will most likely be the last time in history that a survivor of the Holocaust will be able to stand up in Court and say to the world:
"This is the man responsible for the death of my Mother and Father and all the rest of my extended Family. I beg you to punish him for what he robbed me of."
This is not about just making one old Nazi, finally at last, pay for his inhuman crimes. This is about ending this horrific chapter in history with some small modicum of Justice for the millions of victims, both Jews and non-Jews.
Time does not erase evil. Evil must be confronted and exposed to the light of day. Not to place the Nazi, Laszlo Csatary on trial would be to rob the countless victims, both on Earth and in Heaven, of some form of closure to all their worst nightmares and endless sufferings.
Finally, a trial will constitute an undeserved favor rendered to this Nazi beast. If he is allowed to walk free, he will be a man with a target on his back to the end of his days. And there will, no doubt, be a few individuals in the world who will seek to wreak their own form of Justice on Laszlo Csatary if the Hungarian Courts lack the will to do what they are legally obligated to do.
The mountains of dossiers and proof exist, regarding the Nazi, Laszlo Csatary, in many countries throughout the world. He was long ago tried, found guilty and sentenced to death, by a European Court, "in absentia".
At least, confined to jail for life, he will be protected from the many who will not forgive the travesty of Justice of seeing this sadistic murderer of almost 16,000 innocent human beings, walk free.
Europe doesn't kill criminals anymore.