Holocaust Trial Begins for 97-Year-Old

Former Hungary captain accused of killing civilians
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 5, 2011 2:15 PM CDT
Sandor Kepiro, 87, Goes on Trial in Hungary for Alleged Nazi Killing During World War II
Sandor Kepiro holds his sign: "Murderers of a 97-year old man!"   (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

What could be one of the last major Holocaust trials in history is under way in Hungary, reports the BBC. War crimes prosecutors accuse 97-year-old Sandor Kepiro of participating in the deaths of more than 30 civilians in Serbia in 1942 while he was a Hungarian police captain. Kepiro denies the charges and appeared in court holding a sign that read, "Murderers of a 97-year-old man!" The judge made him put it away.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center once listed Kepiro as the world's most-wanted Nazi. "I am thankful to God that Kepiro is alive today," said a center official. "My sense is that (Hungarian authorities) were hoping that we would die and spare Hungary this embarrassment." Hungarian forces are thought to have killed about 800 Serbs and 400 Jews during the 1942 raids in northern Serbia, notes AP. (More Simon Wiesenthal Center stories.)

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