Nazi War Criminal Found in Hungary
Laszlo Csatary, 97, is accused of assisting in the deaths of 15,700 Jews.
| Posted Wednesday, July 18, 2012, at 10:34 AM
Photo by Attila Kisbendek/AFP/Getty Images
A 97-year-old Nazi war criminal accused of assisting in the murder of 15,700 Jews was detained in Hungary on Wednesday. He was number one on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's wanted list.
Laszlo Csatary was convicted in absentia by a Czechoslovakian court and sentenced to death for war crimes in 1948, according to ABC News. He's a former police chief of the Slovak city of Kosice, where he helped to organize the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews to Auschwitz. He's also accused of playing a "key role" in the deportation of another 300 Jews to Kamyanets-Podilsky, where they died.
The BBC reports that Csatary initially fled to Canada after the war. He was an art dealer and gained citizenship under a false name there until 1997, when his identity was discovered and his Canadian citizenship was taken away. He then disappeared, eventually landing in Budapest where he reportedly lived openly under his real name for a few years.
Csatary will likely be held on house arrest. According to ABC news, the case against Csatary is complicated: the crimes happened over 60 years ago, and in another country. Prosecutors are reportedly still investigating the allegations.
