Hungary: Court rejects libel suit against Efraim Zuroff
War criminal misses court proceedings against Simon Wiesenthal Center director; Zuroff: "Bring this Holocaust perpetrator to justice."
By GIL STERN STERN SHEFLERDr. Ephraim Zuroff311(photo credit: AP)
A Hungarian court on Friday rejected a libel suit filed by a convicted war criminal against Simon Wiesenthal Center's Efraim Zuroff.The judge terminated the legal proceedings because complainant Dr. Sandor Kepiro failed to appear in court.RELATED:Third most-wanted Nazi suspect dies before trialCIA Report details ties between US and ex-Nazis“While I am naturally relieved that this legal harassment by Kepiro has been rejected by the court, the real issue of Kepiro’s guilt has still not been addressed properly by the Hungarian prosecutors who have been investigating his case for over three and a half years," Zuroff said."Given the fact that Kepiro was convicted by a Hungarian court in 1944 in relation to the massacre in Novi Sad and the extremely strong evidence available regarding his role in the arrests and roundups of numerous residents of the city who were murdered by the Hungarian forces on January 23, 1942, Kepiro should have been brought to justice long ago," he said."In view of the fact that Kepiro was already 92 years old when I initially submitted the information regarding his residence in Budapest to the prosecutors on August 1, 2006, it is particularly unfortunate that his case was not expedited by the Hungarian authorities. We therefore urge the prosecutors in Budapest to do everything possible to finally bring this Holocaust perpetrator to justice.”
