Serbs probe suspected Nazi war criminal

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- Serbia's war crimes prosecutors formally launched proceedings Wednesday against a World War II veteran accused of participating in mass killings of Jews and Serbs during the Nazi occupation.

Prosecutors said they lodged a request for an investigation against Hungarian citizen Sandor Kepiro with the Belgrade war crimes court. The move is the first step toward an indictment and a trial.

Prosecutors also urged the court to seek Kepiro's extradition to Serbia.

The prosecutors' statement said Kepiro, now 94, is suspected of acts of genocide during World War II. It says that he "in full conscience and of free will" took part in the killings of at least 2,000 Jews and Serbs.

The worst killings took place during the so-called Great Raid of 1942, when about 800 Jews and 400 Serbs were rounded up, shot and drowned in the freezing Danube river in the northern city of Novi Sad, the statement said.

The civilians were stripped naked and all their personal belongings were taken away, the statement added.

Last week, leading Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, visited Serbia and urged the authorities to seek the extradition of Kepiro and two other WWII suspects.

War crimes prosecutors acknowledged in the statement that the initial probe against Kepiro was carried out with help from the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Kepiro had emigrated to Argentina after the war but returned to Hungary in 1996. Hungarian authorities have launched an investigation against Kepiro upon requests from the Wiesenthal center, but he was never punished for his role in the killings in Serbia.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

All About World War II • Serbia • Simon Wiesenthal Center