Defamation Suit Launched By Convicted But Unpunished Hungarian Nazi Collaborator Dr. Sandor Kepiro against Wiesenthal Center's Chief Nazi-Hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff to Open Tomorrowin Budapest Court
October 7, 2010
Jerusalem- A defamation suit launched last year by Hungarian Nazi collaborator Dr. Sandor Kepiro against the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, Israel Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff,the person who discovered and exposed the former gendarmerie officer, who played an important role in the January 23, 1942 mass murder of at least some 1,250 civilians in the Serbian cityof Novi Sad, will open tomorrow, Friday, October 8, at the Budapest district court. Zuroff discovered Kepiro living in the Hungarian capital after almost half a century in exile inArgentina and has spearheaded the efforts to hold him accountable for his role in helping to organize a massacre of Jewish, Serb and Roma residents of the city of Novi Sad in January 1942.All the officers implicated in the massacre were put on trial in Budapest in late 1943 and convicted in early 1944, but following the Nazi invasion of Hungary, their sentences werecancelled and they were given promotions and returned to active service, without any of them being punished.
In February 2007, the Hungarian prosecution initiated an investigation of Kepiro's role in the Novi Sad massacre, based on documentation submitted by Zuroff, but no decision has been madeyet on whether he will be put on trial.According to Zuroff, the failure to date of the Hungarian judicial authorities to punish Kepiro for his role in the heinous crimes committed by theHungarian forces in Novi Sad should be the main issue and not the truthful allegations levelled by the Wiesenthal Center against Kepiro. "Nothing could be more absurd than my being in thedocket in Budapest, while a notorious Hungarian Nazi collaborator remains a free man in the Hungarian capital."
Dr. Zuroff can be reached for comment at: 972-50-712-4156.
