96-Year-Old Hungarian Charged With WWII Crimes

A 96-year-old Hungarian police officer has been charged with war crimes committed during World War II, the AP reports. Sandor Kepiro allegedly ordered the killing of four civilians during a massacre of 1,200 that took place in Serbia. Hungarian courts had convicted Kepiro twice in the 1940s, says the Simon Wiesenthal Center's top Nazi hunter, but the first was overturned on retrial, and the second tossed out when court documents were lost.

Now, new documents uncovered in Belgrade have given fresh evidence of Kepiro's involvement. The man himself remains adamant: "I am innocent and need to be acquitted," he said in a phone interview. "I am bedridden and can't leave my home. I have nothing." Kepiro had previously been included on a list of top war criminals sought by the Weisenthal Center.
(More Hungarian Guard stories.)