Minister of Public Administration and Justice Tibor Navracsics has been officially notified by John Griffin, Australia’s ambassador to Budapest, that the Australian High Court will not allow the war crimes suspect Charles Zentai to be extradited to Hungary.

Mr. Navracsics considers the decision of the Australian High Court to be regrettable, as it prevents further judicial procedure in the case, and makes it impossible to establish the innocence or guilt of Mr. Zentai. He stressed that the Hungarian government is firmly committed to the principle that crimes should not go unpunished.

Mr. Zentai has been accused of involvement in the murder in 1944 of a Jewish youth in Nazi-occupied Budapest, but he denies this charge, saying that at the time of the killing he was not even in the city. In the 1950s Charles Zentai emigrated to Australia, where he gained citizenship. In 2005 Hungary asked the Australian authorities to launch extradition procedures against him. That year Australian police took the suspect into custody and initiated an extradition process, which the Australian government approved in 2009. The Federal Court of Australia overturned the ruling, however, arguing that the offence of ‘war crime’ did not exist under Hungarian law at the time of the killing. As a result, the suspect could not be handed over to the Hungarian authorities. The Australian government refused to accept the court’s decision and turned to the High Court of Australia. The High Court has now rejected that appeal, and has upheld the Federal Court’s decision.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)