Zentai loses appeal against extradition

On his 88th birthday, alleged Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai has lost a Federal Court appeal to avoid extradition to Hungary to face war crimes charges.

The full bench of the court delivered its judgment in Perth today, granting a stay of 14 days on the execution of the extradition warrant on Zentai. The Hungarian government alleges the Hungarian-born Zentai, a resident of the southern Perth suburb of Willeton, was one of three men who tortured Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in Budapest in November 1944, leading to his death. Zentai denies the accusation and has fought against his extradition since a warrant was issued for his arrest in 2005.

Perth magistrate Barbara Lane last year ruled the former Hungarian soldier was eligible to be surrendered for extradition to face the charge. Zentai's lawyers appealed the decision in the Federal Court, but it was upheld by Justice John Gilmour in March.

The lawyers took the legal fight to the full bench of the Federal Court in August. They argued that under a treaty between Australia and Hungary, the crime was not an offence when it was allegedly committed.

Zentai has the option of applying to the High Court for leave to appeal.

Last year, the High Court dismissed an appeal by Zentai and two others challenging the validity of Australia's extradition law, claiming the law involved a "constitutionally impermissible" attempt by the commonwealth to impose a duty upon magistrates as holders of a state statutory office. Attorney-General Robert McClelland has the final say on Zentai's extradition.

Mr McClelland has delegated the decision to Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor, who has already invited submissions on the matter.

A spokesman for Mr O'Connor said once the appeals process was exhausted and Mr O'Connor was asked to make a decision, it would come "expeditiously". Zentai's bail was renewed and he was to attend a cardiologist's appointment ordered by the attorney-general's office on Thursday afternoon. His son Ernie Steiner said outside the court the family would consider its options in the next two weeks.

"We're leaving all options open at the moment, because we haven't read the full extent of the judgment. There may be things in there that are worth pursuing," he said.

The cost of seeking leave for the case to be heard in the High Court was cause for hesitation to push the case further, with the legal bill topping $200,000 to date, Mr Steiner said.

"There is a hesitation (to go to the High Court); the cost is a factor but we'll do what needs to be done," he told reporters.

Mr Steiner said he had lodged a 570-page submission with Mr O'Connor and said the minister could be his father's best hope of avoiding extradition.

"As far as that goes we've never been able to present any arguments about my father's innocence in the courts in Australia," he said. "Obviously I am very concerned for my father, and I've had to ask him some very direct questions, and I'm convinced through my own family history, statements he made in 1994 when my mother was still alive, about the date of his departure from Budapest. He wasn't even there. So this is really a travesty, this whole thing."

Zentai turned 88 today. Mr Steiner said he understood that his father would be remanded in custody after 14 days when the stay lapses.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre lists him among their top 10 wanted war criminals. The Jewish human rights group says Zentai and two others beat Balazs because he was not wearing a Jewish star. If Zentai is extradited, he will be the first Australian ever extradited to face charges of alleged war crimes.

news.com.au

BNP seeks to reactivate far-right alliance in European Parliament

Jobbik:Hungarian Master Race?

The seeds of a reactivated extreme right-wing alliance in Europe were being sown this week by British National Party leader Nick Griffin, who made visits to Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Mr Griffin was invited to the two East European countries by representatives of extremist parties who had made trips to Britain earlier in the year.

A fragile pan-European Parliament alliance last year collapsed in disarray after five Romanian nationalists walked out, claiming they had been insulted by their Italian colleagues. The effect of the walk-out was to put the group below the minimum number of seats required to allow it to participate in the parliament.

Now Mr Griffin is planning another attempt to bring together extremists - the BNP calls them "nationalists" - from Belgium, Austria and Italy, as well as the Czech Republic and Hungary. After a first stop in Budapest, he will be heading to Prague for Czech National Day on October 28. Earlier this year, a Czech right-winger spoke at the BNP's Red, White and Blue Festival.

Gerry Gable, the veteran anti-fascist and publisher of Searchlight magazine, said: "They are clearly hoping they will be able to pick up the extra seats they need. However, they may not be successful because the European Parliament has increased slightly the number of seats necessary.

"In the past year, Griffin has associated himself with a number of very hard-line extremists. In May, members of an extreme group from Hungary came here and a member of the Czech Republic was here several weeks ago to talk to the Greenwich and Bexley branches of the BNP. Only a few days ago, a number of people were sprayed with acid in an antisemitic attack in Hungary.

"I know Griffin has made overtures to the community in the past couple of years to try to shed the BNP's image of being antisemitic, and has been firmly rebuffed. But when he is consorting with these people in Europe, it rather gives the lie to what he says he trying to do."

Winston Pickett, director of the newly formed European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, said: "Griffin's tour has come against a backdrop of renewed and increased political activities by the Hungarian far-right.

"In particular, the Jobbik party [Movement For a Better Hungary] wants to forge alliances with other right-wing groups in order to create a united front ahead of the European elections next June."

Simon Darby, the party's deputy leader, confirming the invitations, said the BNP was following only what other groups had done in Europe in trying to form a "nationalist bloc".

The Jewish Chronicle

Hungarian football clamps down on rampant racism

With a fresh racism scandal to hit Hungarian football, the national football federation (MLSZ) have decided to tackle the issue head on by implementing punitive measures for the new season.

Former national coach Kalman Meszoly was forced to resign from the football federation board just days after making racist remarks in public.

“They have hardly just come down from the trees,” said Meszoly in an interview with Hungarian television channel Sport TV, concerning African players with Hungarian clubs.

The Mahatma Gandhi association, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that looks after the interests of Africans in Hungary, were quick to react and requested that European football’s governing body (UEFA) investigate the manner in which the MLSZ are fighting racism.

The remarks by Meszoly follow the largest racism scandal to hit Hungary when last season the federation docked three points from Budapest club Ujpest for crowd trouble during their domestic league tie against Debrecen. The supporters chanted monkey noises every time Senegal striker Ibrahim Sidve touched the ball. As a result of the three-point penalty, Ujpest ended the season in third place, which cost the club substantial earnings and a qualification spot in the UEFA Cup.

Racism has persistently plagued the Hungarian league, despite a tiny number of their players being coloured – five in the First Division for 2006-2007 and 10 this term. African players have also been attacked outside the stadiums and at underground train stations.

For the 2007-2008 season the MLSZ have announced a “zero tolerance” policy against racism and have published a charter on the official website (www.mlsz.hu). The Hungarian federation have asked all referees to interrupt games at the first sign of racism in the stands, and if the racism continues to award the three points to the victimised team. The stadium of the offending supporters will also be closed if there is a second offence coupled with the points deduction, according to FIFA guidelines. However the team will be relegated to the division below if there is a third offence. The rules also apply to verbal offences towards the opposition and referees.

Agence France-Presse

Quilt recalls horrors of Nazi cruelty

Quilts are pieces of cloth sewn together that in many cases tell history. Not all are designed to remember happy times. For Rosa Freund, the quilt she recently completed looks back on when she and others lived through the tyranny of Nazism.

A Holocaust survivor who started her life in concentration camps when she was 17 years old, Freund gathered patches from friends and then created a quilt to be a silent witness of those terrible days more than six decades ago when she was taken from her home on the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary.

One of the patches is of blue and white stripes, the colors of the uniform she wore in one camp. On the patch is a pocket that bears a gold number 672. "That was my work number," the small-framed woman said.

Above the pocket is a candle of remembrance, which Freund said is important for her. It marks the horrors she saw at places such as Birkenau, Auschwitz and other death camps.

While 672 is a number she remembers, Freund almost had another number. She was one of about 800 people standing in line and was near the place where her arm would have been tattooed with a number. "They ran out of ink before they got to me," she said.

So, unlike untold hundreds of thousands who were "inked" crudely with a number, Freund was not. She also took an old photo of her brother, Moshe; her sister, Klara and her taken before they were sent to concentration camps and had it transposed on a white piece of cloth and sewn to the quilt. The photo was discovered after World War II and was in her brother's possession. He was living in Israel.

Perhaps the most telling of her personally designed patches is one of three smokestacks and the buildings that those who were to be killed entered.

"I lived three blocks from the crematoria," Freund said.

Years later, those days of being near the crematoria came back in a haunting way. Freund said she was at a doctor's office in the United States because of a skin problem. The doctor decided to burn off some of her dry skin. The smell of her own burning flesh rose to her nostrils, bringing back the stench of bodies being burned more than 60 years ago.

Freund was one of five Holocaust survivors who made a trip recently to Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista to speak about the time of death and destruction unleashed against Jews and others in Europe by Germany's Nazi regime.

The program was part of an educational process of the Holocaust survivors of southern Arizona who meet weekly at the Jewish Family and Children Service of Southern Arizona. For the past five years, the group has come to the post to speak to military members, civilians and schoolchildren. This year's event was called "Children in Crisis, Voices of the Holocaust."

Exhibits about the Holocaust from the Afikim Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering Jewish life, also are on display.

Freund completed the quilt just before April 15, Holocaust Day. The quilt's appearance at the fort was the first of many planned for outside Tucson.

Tucson Citizen