Extradition Fight
On 16 April 2007, his first appeal against the extradition case was dismissed by a full bench of the Australian Federal Court. Simon Wiesenthal Center director Efraim Zuroff said he was very pleased that Zentai's appeals had been rejected and that "the extradition process can finally proceed".
On 1 October 2007 new evidence came to light: a testimony by Zentai's military commander which was used at a trial in the Budapest People's Court in February 1948. This commander blamed a fellow soldier who was later convicted.
On 2 March 2009, and despite these accusations, Zentai passed a polygraph test conducted by Gavin Willson from Australian Polygraph Services. In interviews, Willson expressed "no doubt" that Zentai was telling him the truth.
Zentai's lawyers continued to argue against extradition, saying that war crimes were not considered illegal in Hungary in 1944 when the alleged crime took place. Zentai remained free on bail while his case was again appealed to the full bench of the Australian Federal Court. The Australian government approved Zentai's extradition to Hungary on November 12, 2009, making Zentai's case the first in which the Australians approved of extraditing any Nazi suspect.
After an appeal to the Federal Court the extradition order was overturned on 2 July 2010. During the appeal Zentai's defence lawyers argued that Zentai could not be extradited, as the Hungarian authorities had not charged him with an offence, and instead he was only being ordered to return to face questioning. The court found that the government did not have the jurisdiction to order Zentai to be extradited.
In early January 2011 the Australian Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor lodged an appeal against the decision (that as the Hungarian authorities had not laid charges, the Australian government did not have the legal power to extradite him). The Hungarian authorities have not explained why they could not question him in Australia under the treaty on criminal cooperation. In their public response to the decision, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre assumed Mr Zentai will face trial if extradited.
Australia's highest court ruled on 15 August 2012 that 90-year-old Zentai cannot be extradited to Hungary because the offense of a "war crime" did not exist in Hungarian law in 1944.
Read more about this topic: Charles Zentai
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