97-year-old former Hungarian National Socialist to be tried for the Novi Sad 1942 massacre
85 replies, posted
[img]http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20110505&t=2&i=404364735&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2011-05-05T154908Z_01_BTRE74417Y200_RTROPTP_0_HUNGARY-WAR[/img]
[quote]Sandor Kepiro, 97, stands accused of murdering exactly 36 people during a 1942 operation in the Yugoslav town of Novi Sad that claimed the lives of some 4,200 civilians.
But in court Mr Kepiro, who declared himself fit to stand trial, dismissed the charges.
"I am innocent and I am here on trumped-up charges," he said. "This trial is a terrible thing. There is no basis to this, everything is based on lies."
During the war Mr Kepiro, a gendarme captain in Hungary's fascist forces, took part in the Novi Sad raid but has always maintained that while he helped arrest civilians he took no part on the bloodletting. Hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Roma were taken to the banks of the Danube and shot or thrown into the frozen river alive by Hungarian forces in apparent revenge for partisan attacks.
For his alleged role in the massacre Mr Kepiro at one time topped the Wiesenthal Center's most-wanted Nazis list.
"It's clear that this is one of the last major trials of Holocaust-era war criminal suspects," Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter at the Wiesenthal Center.
Meanwhile in Rome, Ernst Pinstor, an ex-Wehrmacht captain, Fritz Jauss, a former warrant officer and Johann Riss, a former sergeant, were accused of killing 184 men, women and children in the Tuscan village of Padule di Fucecchio, near Florence, in August 1944.
Marco De Paolis, a military prosecutor, told the court that the three men, who are all in their nineties and live in Germany, had never shown any remorse over their alleged roles in the atrocity. The trio deny the allegations.
The killings took place a day after an SS division killed 560 people in the nearby village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema, the backdrop to 'Miracle at St. Anna', a 2008 film by Spike Lee, the American director.[/quote]
[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/8494982/Most-wanted-Nazi-protests-innocence.html[/url]
[img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01887/Sandor-Kepiro_1887940c.jpg[/img]
Read more about him:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1ndor_K%C3%A9p%C3%ADr%C3%B3[/url]
Are there any witnesses to be cross-examined? Is there any forensic evidence?
[img]http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20110505&t=2&i=404364735&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2011-05-05T154908Z_01_BTRE74417Y200_RTROPTP_0_HUNGARY-WAR[/img]
[img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01887/Sandor-Kepiro_1887940c.jpg[/img]
These shouldn't make me laugh but they do
Normally I'd be all for the punishing of murderers but this seems ridiculous.
[QUOTE=SBD;29665069]Are there any witnesses to be cross-examined? Is there any forensic evidence?[/QUOTE]
Mr. Zuroff tried to have him arrested and charged again in September 2009 on the same charges, but because of a lack of evidence they were dropped. This is like the fourth time he's had to go through this nonsense.
So he'll go to jail for a week and die from exposure?
Might as well just let him live the last few years of his life in peace.
[quote]Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter at the Wiesenthal Center.[/quote]
I think time is the chief Nazi hunter.
Considering if you were a German officer in WWII you were no probably younger than 30.
What I have to ask is where, exactly, did the 36 murdered on his part figure come from?
If he truly did commit the murders then he needs to face justice. Time does not wipe away the blood, rebuild the families, or bring back the dead. He should be accountable for his actions.
He's 97, this seems unnecessary, chances are he can't even wipe his own ass.
[img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01887/Sandor-Kepiro_1887940c.jpg[/img]
There's something about the guy on the left which makes it seem like all three of them are dwarves.
Even if he did do this I'm sure it would've drove him mentally-insane. I mean killing dozens of people that'd be a heavy burden.
[QUOTE=Edthefirst;29665179]If he truly did commit the murders then he needs to face justice. Time does not wipe away the blood, rebuild the families, or bring back the dead. He should be accountable for his actions.[/QUOTE]
he's 97 years old
don't they have a statute of limitations in europe
This is stupid. There is no point in trying to charge a 97 year old man on things that happened nearly 70 years ago.
Even if he did do it then its kinda late now.
[QUOTE=Mon;29665243]he's 97 years old
don't they have a statute of limitations in europe[/QUOTE]
There isn't any statute of limitations for murder/war crimes in most places, I'm fairly sure.
[QUOTE=Mon;29665243]he's 97 years old
don't they have a statute of limitations in europe[/QUOTE]
generally there is no such thing for multiple murders
[QUOTE=Mon;29665243]he's 97 years old
don't they have a statute of limitations in europe[/QUOTE]
Even if they did, it's the principal. People will disagree because he's an old man and they feel sorry for his frailty and lack of an ability to do anything, but it doesn't erase the fact that he's ruined the lives of 36 people and the families of those people.
Of course, innocent until proven guilty.
[editline]6th May 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=xxncxx;29665248]This is stupid. There is no point in trying to charge a 97 year old man on things that happened nearly 70 years ago.
Even if he did do it then its kinda late now.[/QUOTE]
I propose to you this then. What if this was Osama Bin Laden? It's a dangerous precedent to establish that you can get away with crimes because you are old as fuck. I bet no one would feel sorry for Bin Laden if he was captured and tried at that age.
How is this any different? The scale obviously, but how do you quantify the impact of murdering 36 people?
[QUOTE=Edthefirst;29665179]If he truly did commit the murders then he needs to face justice. Time does not wipe away the blood, rebuild the families, or bring back the dead. He should be accountable for his actions.[/QUOTE]
What does it matter? An old guy who can't take care of himself, lives at home, and is basically limited to a few highly restrained activities? Or an old guy, in a cell, who can't take care of himself, and is limited to a few highly restrained activities? Waste of money, since none of the European nations have the death penalty and his situation will only very vaguely change if he [I]is[/I] imprisoned.
[QUOTE]How is this any different? The scale obviously, but how do you quantify the impact of murdering 36 people?[/QUOTE]
How do we know he murdered 36 people? Seems like the evidence is pretty rickety to begin with. I can't see anything in there that explains the figure.
[QUOTE=Jenkem;29666656]
How do we know he murdered 36 people?[/QUOTE]
That's what the trial is for :downs:
[QUOTE=Mr. Bleak;29665090]So he'll go to jail for a week and die from exposure?
Might as well just let him live the last few years of his life in peace.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdelbaset_al-Megrahi[/url]
the point of law isn't punishment i thought people made that clear before
he's not gonna go to jail
At very least the man should be held responsible for the crimes he committed, if he did in fact commit them, which has yet to be proven.
Some people just want to see justice, no matter how old they and no matter how painful the suffering is through it.
For someone this old, it's especially quite sad.
Nothing has been proven yet, the article says he's just going on trial. The result of the trial will determine whether the claims are true or false.
Efraim Zuroff, in my humble opinion, is a colossal dickwad.
What is the point, he probably regrets it very very much
[QUOTE=thisispain;29666900]the point of law isn't punishment i thought people made that clear before
he's not gonna go to jail[/QUOTE]
That's exactly why he SHOULD be going to jail; it shows that no, you can't commit atrocities and then get away with it just because you aren't found out until you're old.
[editline]6th May 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;29668021]What is the point, he probably regrets it very very much[/QUOTE]
He doesn't, that's what "never shown any remorse" means.
He can't honestly be held accountable for this can he? As a soldier you do as you are order to. By this logic we might as well put to trial every soldier that's ever successfully killed during the line of duty.
[QUOTE=EastBayWilly;29668210]He can't honestly be held accountable for this can he? As a soldier you do as you are order to. By this logic we might as well put to trial every soldier that's ever successfully killed during the line of duty.[/QUOTE]
True, but the fact that he was an officer combined with the fact that he has never shown any remorse make the war criminal label fit nicely.
[QUOTE=Benstokes;29668232]True, but the fact that he was an officer combined with the fact that he has never shown any remorse make the war criminal label fit nicely.[/QUOTE]
There are no buts. He did as he was ordered by a superior. That's the end of it. Whether or not he feels guilty about it is beside the point. All is fair in war. Besides the damn guy is 97 years old. He'll die soon anyways.
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