Zentai: Commonwealth back in the Driver’s Seat

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor has to determine what constitutes a war crime in the legal battle to satisfy the request for extradition by the Hungarian government of 89-yr-old Perth resident Charles Zentai to face questioning over the 1944 murder of Jewish youth Peter Balazs in Budapest.

The Federal Court’s ruling last year that the Government had erred in law when approving the extradition last year has been successfully partially appealed by the Government.

The Government is now considering the decision.

Peter Balazs was an 18-yr-old spotted in a Budapest tram not wearing the mandatory yellow star. He was not obliged to as he was living under Swiss protection. He was dragged from the tram to army barracks where he was slowly beaten to death in front other prisoners.

Hungarian authorities want to question Zentai in relation to the killing.

A spokeswoman for the Minister told J-Wire: “The Full Federal Court allowed two of the three grounds of the Commonwealth’s appeal against a decision in 2010 to set aside the Minister’s determination to surrender Mr Zentai to Hungary to face prosecution for a war crime.

The Full Federal Court upheld that Mr Zentai is an ‘accused’ person within the meaning of the Extradition Act, and that the Minister took into account relevant considerations when considering whether it would be unjust, oppressive or incompatible with humanitarian considerations to surrender Mr Zentai to Hungary.

However, the Full Federal Court did not uphold the Commonwealth’s ground of appeal that the offence for which Hungary seeks Mr Zentai’s extradition is an offence for which he could be surrendered in accordance with the Treaty between Australia and Hungary. This is because the offence of ‘war crime’ was not listed on Hungary’s statute books at the time the offence was allegedly committed.

It was appropriate to appeal to the Full Court as the case raised significant and complex issues for the administration of Australia’s extradition regime.

The Full Federal Court decision is currently under consideration by the Government in consultation with the Commonwealth’s legal advisers and it is not appropriate to comment further at this stage”.