JURIST - Paper Chase: Hungary court drops war crimes charges against accused Nazi

[JURIST] A Hungarian court on Monday dropped war crimes charges against accused Nazi Sandor Kepiro, who was alleged to have participated in the 1942 Novi Sad massacre in Serbia. Thirty-five people were killed by Hungarian forces under Kepiro's control during the World War II raid. Kepiro, whose trial began in May [JURIST report], persistently denied involvement and rejected the charges [AP report]. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) [advocacy website], a Jewish human rights organization committed to finding and prosecuting Holocaust war criminals, named Kepiro, 97, as the world's most wanted Nazi war crimes suspect. Kepiro was convicted both in 1944 and 1946 and sentenced to 10 years for involvement in the raids, but he was released and fled to Argentina. He was located and apprehended by the SWC in 2006 and charged [JURIST report] in February.

Kepiro's prosecution was likely one of the last of an accused Nazi. In May, the trial of accused Nazi guard John Demjanjuk [NNDB profile, JURIST news archive] ended when he was convicted [JURIST report] but released because of his advanced age. An appeal [JURIST report] of his release is pending. In November, Nazi guard Samuel Kunz [Trial Watch profile], 89, passed away [JURIST report] in his home before he could be brought to trial. He was accused of aiding in the killing of hundreds of thousands of Jewish people at the Belzec concentration camp [HRP backgrounder].