Nazi war crimes suspect Laszlo Csatary dies

98-year-old was indicted in June for abusing Jews and role in deportations to death camps

Hungarian Laszlo Csatary, suspected of war crimes against Jews during Word War Two, is pictured in Budapest last year. He died at the weekend, aged 98.  Photograph: Reuters/Laszlo Balogh.
Hungarian Laszlo Csatary, suspected of war crimes against Jews during Word War Two, is pictured in Budapest last year. He died at the weekend, aged 98. Photograph: Reuters/Laszlo Balogh.

Laszlo Csatary, a former police officer indicted in June by Hungarian authorities for abusing Jews and contributing to their deportation to Nazi death camps during the Second World War II has died at the age of 98.

His lawyer, Horvath B Gabor, said Csatary died of pneumonia in a Budapest hospital on Saturday.

Csatary, who denied the charges, was sentenced to death in his absence in Czechoslovakia in 1948 for similar war crimes. After the war, he lived for decades in Canada before leaving in 1997 when it was discovered that he had lied about his past to obtain citizenship.

Csatary's case and his whereabouts were revealed in 2012 by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish organisation active in hunting down Nazis who have yet to be brought to justice.

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AP