Jerusalem - The prominent Nazi-hunting organisation, on Nazis, report the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, yesterday named Sweden and Syria as the two countries with the worst record of catching suspected Nazi war criminals. A report it published praised the United States for vigorous efforts but said Austria, Australia, Estonia, Scotland and New Zealand had not done enough.
In a "report card" on catching and punishing people who took part in the killing of six million Jews during the second World War, the centre gave Sweden and Syria F grades, saying both refused to prosecute or hand over known war criminals.
Syria has consistently denied that Alois Brunner - who has been sentenced three times in absentia by France to life in prison for deporting 128,500 Jews to Nazi death camps - lives in Damascus and says it has no knowledge of his whereabouts.
In Stockholm a political adviser in charge of Holocaust affairs at the Swedish Prime Minister's office, said there was a 25-year statute of limitations on prosecuting war criminals, so suspected Nazis could no longer be tried in Sweden.