Background
Zentai, who denies the charges against him, was serving in the Hungarian Army as warrant officer at the time he is accused of having murdered Péter Balázs, an 18-year old Jewish man, in November 1944. According to witnesses, Balázs was not wearing his yellow star on the train, a crime punishable by death in German occupied Hungary at the time. Zentai allegedly took him to an army barracks, beat him to death, and threw his body into the Danube. Zentai was tracked down by The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is also 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 Center, who presented his allegations against Zentai to Hungarian prosecutors.
On 8 July 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.
Read more about this topic: Charles Zentai
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