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December 9th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
AAP
The federal government may have won only a token victory in gaining the right to appeal a court ruling preventing it from extraditing a 90-year-old Perth man over Holocaust-related war crimes.
The full bench of the High Court made the ruling on Friday granting federal Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor special leave to appeal in Sydney on Thursday.
The family of Charles Zentai, who is accused of murdering an 18-year-old Jewish man in November 1944 while serving in the Hungarian Army, say he is too sick to return to Hungary and may never leave Australia, despite any ruling.
Mr Zentai’s son, Ernie Steine, told AAP on Friday that his father’s cardiologist would testify against his extradition on health grounds.
“He’s not fit to travel and he shouldn’t be placed in those circumstances. It’s life-threatening,” Mr Steine said.
“He received a letter from his cardiologist last week saying he wouldn’t grant permission for him to be extradited.
“That’s quite a change in his health assessment and recognition of the strokes he’s suffered over the past 12 months.”
Mr Zentai was arrested by Australian Federal Police in 2005 to face extradition proceedings over accusations that he had beaten the man to death and thrown his body in the Danube River.
There are no surviving witnesses to the alleged murder.
The federal government approved Mr Zentai’s extradition to Hungary in November 2009, but the decision was overturned on appeal in the Federal Court in August.
It found the offence of “war crime” did not exist in Hungarian law in November 1944, and that Mr O’Connor could not subsequently approve Mr Zentai’s extradition.
Mr Steine said his father was “very disappointed” at the latest ruling, but not surprised.
“We didn’t have great hopes of preventing the minister from being granted special leave from the High Court, but we were hoping that wouldn’t be the case,” he said.
Mr Steine said he believed the Australian government was bowing to pressure from Israel, which still pursues anyone alleged to have committed crimes against Jews during World War II.
“I think that’s been the case all along,” he said.
Mr Steine said he expected Mr O’Connor to lodge an appeal seeking extradition in April or May.
His father would continue to fight extradition.
A spokeswoman for Mr O’Connor welcomed the decision, saying the Commonwealth was appealing against the Federal Court’s interpretation of an extraditable offence.
“The matter raises a significant issue for the administration of Australia’s extradition regime,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
She said the government could not comment further while the matter was before the courts.
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