JURIST - Paper Chase: Serbia requests extradition of accused Nazi living in US

[JURIST] Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic [official profile] said that Serbia has filed documents asking the US to extradite accused Nazi war criminal and naturalized US citizen Peter Egner [JURIST news archive] to Serbia so that he can stand trial on war crimes charges. Serbian prosecutors claim that the Yugoslavia-born Egner [AP report] was part of the Einsatzgruppen [USHMM backgrounder], a German military unit blamed for the deaths of more than 17,000 Serbian Jews and other minorities during Germany's occupation of Serbia in World War II. Egner admitted to US federal officials in 2007 that he had been a member of the squad, which is alleged to have rounded up women and children in specially modified vans to gas them with carbon monoxide. He is currently fighting efforts by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] to revoke his citizenship [JURIST report], which would allow the government to extradite him to Serbia to stand trial on numerous counts of war crimes.

Serbia's Office the War Crimes Prosecutor [official website] announced in 2009 that it would ask the US for Egner's extradition [JURIST report]. In July 2008, Serbian prosecutors confirmed [JURIST report] that they were gathering evidence for a case against Egner. Earlier that same week, the DOJ filed a complaint [text, PDF] in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] seeking to revoke Egner's US citizenship. Egner became a US citizen in 1966 but failed to disclose his Nazi service on his citizenship application. The DOJ argued that he was ineligible for citizenship both because of his service and because he concealed that information on his application.