Dear Stg,

I agree with you - anyone who murders should be held accountable.
But if war criminals are going to be targeted - they should all be targeted.

The problem I have with this particular case is - can the defense build its case? Does it have free access to alleged documents and witnesses? Otherwise - how can justice be done? The evidence against this man comes from a period in his country's history that was filled with deceit and disinformation, where evidence was selected against the then (Soviet) regimes avowed enemies. How reliable is the evidence against him?

It is morally and legally unacceptable that our law is distorted for the purpose of avenging wrongs at the expense of individual liberties.
Our law guarantees the individual certain fundamental rights and protections. Our laws are based on the principle that the law serves the individual, not the state.

In contrast Lenin made it clear that,
"A law is a political measure, it is politics." No Soviet authority or leader has abandoned this concept.

As I said, I find it troubling that the evidence against this man comes from the time of the Soviet regime.

Me: "I'm not suggesting for a second that the religion of the victim excuses his crime, although no doubt the usual accusations will be made by the usual dimwits"

Col Rouge: "your anti-semite bigotry [amid a rather poor attempt at a rant]

StG: "bigots that rise from the stinky festering swamp of agenda driven driatribe when an issue involving the holocaust and Jews comes up"

Congratulations, dimwits.

Col Rouge – I like how you turn criticism on the Jews into branding me a racist. How cliché! Its sounds like something as daft as CJ Morgan would say. You and him have a lot in common when posting on OLO because you never have any facts nor do you provide any substance! Nothing but pure empty dogma!

I would be very interested if you could explain how I am being racist?

I know I am wasting my time asking Col Rouge this as his contributes to OLO is along the same lines as a clowns contributes to a bad circus act.

I have to ask what about all the Jews who where in the camps who killed captured Germans towards the end of the war? Should they all be trialed for Murder? The number of these cases are in the hundreds and well documented! Do you support the arresting of these murders Col? Or are you just a weak worthless low down raving hypocrite like suspect you are!

O and by the way Col if my grand parents had been living in Germany in the time of Hitler they would have been branded “Jews” and treated accordingly!

I have to say I do pity idiots like you.

Foxy – “As I said, I find it troubling that the evidence against this man comes from the time of the Soviet regime.” You are right there the number of crimes committed on the Eastern front by both sides both during the war and after are in the hundreds of thousands. All the cases against Germans which can be prosecuted have been as far as I know. There are still many tens of thousands of cases against Russians soldiers and the like that will never be prosecuted!

I have also heard of crimes committed by Allied and Australian soldiers against Japanese POW.. but lets not go there!

Foxy I forgot to post this link if you are interested

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_crimes

Charles Zentai was one of three men who failed in a bid to avoid extradition hearings.

On 23/4/08 the High Court of Australia dismissed the appeals by a majority of six to one after the trio lost earlier appeals in the Federal Court.

That decision also covers the cases of Larry Williams, wanted in the US on tax evasion charges, and Irishman Vincent Thomas O'Donoghue, who faces fraud charges.

Charles Zentai, served in the Nazi-allied Hungarian Army during the war. He was one of thousands who fled the Russian advance and ended up in Australia as a refugee in 1950 after living in the American and French-occupied zones of Germany.

Hamish Fitzsimmons reported that: “The bulk of the evidence against Charles Zentai comes from the trials of two Hungarian army officers, Bela Mader and Lajos Nagy, who were convicted of the crime in 1947.

"Mader was sentenced to life with hard labour but released in 1956. Nagy was executed. Both pointed the finger at Charles Zentai.”

Efraim Zuroff of the Wiesenthal Centre claim that both Mader and Nagy very clearly identified Charles Zentai as the person, one of the people who carried out the beating and murder and the person who threw the body of Peter Balasz into the Danube.

In 1947 Hungary's new communist government charged the former army officer in his absence with the murder of Peter Balazs, the 17-year-old Jewish youth who was murdered on 8/11/'44. Mr Zantai claims he left Budapest on the 7/11/'44 with many civilians and a large military contingency so I don't imagine that would be impossible to verify.

The High Court's recent decision does not augur well for others, who suspected of war crimes, have found safe haven in Australia.

Mr Zuroff advised that "after being accused of a war crime, the health of every alleged Nazi war criminal usually follows a predictable path — it rapidly declines."

I haven't met Mr Zentai therefore I cannot verify whether he is “charming” or not. Perhaps we shall find out in the not too distant future.

Foxy your deflection into the history of Hungary is deficient (nothing new in that from you), Hungary is one of the newer members of the EU and thus can be considered to have moved of from its years under the yoke of bestial communism.

“can justice be achieved through a selective process which violates the most fundamental due process rights of the accused?”

It seems to me that is what a trial will be about, rather than a proclamation of his innocence or exemption from due process because it fits with your personal thought for the day.

Antiseptic “Congratulations, dimwits.”

I have no problems with what you call me.

I would far sooner be mistaken for a ‘dimwit’ than to stand here, like you and announce yourself as a small minded bigot devoid of sufficient wit (dim even) to know how indefensible your arrogant posturing condemns you to be.

I guess you need all the ‘antiseptic’ you can get, having adopted the content and values of a carbuncle.

Easytimes “into branding me a racist.”

I did not brand you a ‘racist’,

It was your own invective statement “the Jews are a bunch of whingers who wont let the holocaust become part of history because they have a chip on their shoulder the size of a synagogue.”

Which does that.

As for “O and by the way Col if my grand parents had been living in Germany in the time of Hitler they would have been branded “Jews” and treated accordingly!”

So what, I have two great grandmothers who were Jewish but I was brought up an English protestant.

I guess if we look back far enough there might be a “little bit of Jew” in all of us. It is a point of neither shame or acclaim.

How we are, the values we aspire to (or otherwise) is a matter for each individual to decide.

That you have clearly decided on being a racist is your shame and would doubtless be considered so by your grandparents too.