Suspected Nazi war criminal acquitted
Source: Agencies |
July 19, 2011, Tuesday
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A 97-year-old man was cleared yesterday of war crimes charges stemming from a raid by Hungarian forces that killed 35 people in Serbia during World War II, shocking those who considered the case "one of the last major trials" of alleged Holocaust-era war criminal suspects.
"It's an absolutely outrageous decision," Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter with the Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office said.
It "flies in the face of all the evidence, everything we know about this dark event and the mass murder that took place in Novi Sad," added Zuroff, who brought Kepiro's case to light in 2006.
Sandor Kepiro had been charged by prosecutors with alleged involvement in the killing of the mostly Jews and Serbs during an anti-partisan raid in the Serbian city of Novi Sad, then under Hungarian control, on January 23, 1942. He returned to Hungary in 1996 after decades in Argentina.
Bruno Vekaric, Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor, said they expected Hungarian prosecutors to appeal the verdict.
"Of course, we are not pleased," Vekaric said.
Prosecutors and the defense have until late Friday to appeal.
Hungary was a member of the Axis powers - allied with Germany, Italy and Japan - from 1940, participating in the 1941 invasion of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia was then part.
Prosecutors had stated in the trial which began on May 5 that unidentified members of a patrol under Kepiro's command killed four people during the raid. Kepiro, at the time a gendarmerie captain, was also suspected of being involved in the deaths of around 30 others who were executed on the banks of the Danube River.
Many of the dozens of people attending the court session cheered and clapped after Judge Bela Varga read out the verdict of the three-judge tribunal. Before reading out the verdict, Varga said Kepiro had been brought to the tribunal by ambulance and had spent the past week in hospital. The judge said he had apparently been given the wrong medication.
Kepiro rejected all the charges at trial's start.
"It's an absolutely outrageous decision," Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter with the Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office said.
It "flies in the face of all the evidence, everything we know about this dark event and the mass murder that took place in Novi Sad," added Zuroff, who brought Kepiro's case to light in 2006.
Sandor Kepiro had been charged by prosecutors with alleged involvement in the killing of the mostly Jews and Serbs during an anti-partisan raid in the Serbian city of Novi Sad, then under Hungarian control, on January 23, 1942. He returned to Hungary in 1996 after decades in Argentina.
Bruno Vekaric, Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor, said they expected Hungarian prosecutors to appeal the verdict.
"Of course, we are not pleased," Vekaric said.
Prosecutors and the defense have until late Friday to appeal.
Hungary was a member of the Axis powers - allied with Germany, Italy and Japan - from 1940, participating in the 1941 invasion of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia was then part.
Prosecutors had stated in the trial which began on May 5 that unidentified members of a patrol under Kepiro's command killed four people during the raid. Kepiro, at the time a gendarmerie captain, was also suspected of being involved in the deaths of around 30 others who were executed on the banks of the Danube River.
Many of the dozens of people attending the court session cheered and clapped after Judge Bela Varga read out the verdict of the three-judge tribunal. Before reading out the verdict, Varga said Kepiro had been brought to the tribunal by ambulance and had spent the past week in hospital. The judge said he had apparently been given the wrong medication.
Kepiro rejected all the charges at trial's start.
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