High Court to consider extraditing alleged Hungarian war criminal

The battle to extradite 90-year-old to Hungary continues, with Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs appealing a ruling of the Federal Court, which found last year that the offence of “war crime” did not exist in Hungarian law at the time of Mr. Zentai’s alleged conduct. Mr. Zentai is accused of assaulting an 18-year-old Jewish man and throwing his body into the Danube River in 1944, during his time in the Hungarian army.

The appeal is based on the grounds that the court made an error in ruling that the extradition may only take place where the specific offence existed under Hungarian law at the time. Governmental inquiries are said to have determined that the offence would have constituted a crime, specifically murder, which would have been recognized under Hungarian law at the time.

The case raises the issue of ‘double criminality’ – a condition of the extradition treaty between Australia and Hungary - which would require a comparable crime in Australian law. Justice Gummow raised concerns over the fact that Mr Zentai’s alleged crime would have been punishable by a military tribunal. “If in 1944 a service person murdered somebody, what is the double criminality under our law? I don't think it is just the state law of murder in the particular state it happened?” Gummow asked.

However, the minister's counsel, Stephen Lloyd SC, has argued that it is enough to satisfy the terms of the treaty that the alleged conduct would have constituted murder.

Mr Zentai is on bail pending the High Court’s decision.

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