Alleged nazi war criminal facing deportation

An alleged Nazi war criminal who fled Britain must be extradited to his native Latvia, an Australian magistrate ordered today.

Konrad Kalejs, 87, arrived in a wheelchair to hear Melbourne magistrate Lisa Hannan’s decision which was delivered after weeks of hearings involving Latvian officials and defence lawyers.

Kalejs is wanted in Latvia for alleged atrocities committed during the Second World War.

Defence lawyers immediately issued a statement saying they would appeal against the ruling, describing it as ‘‘inhumane and unjust’’.

In January 2000, Kalejs left Britain for Australia after Nazi hunters tracked him down to a retirement home in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. He had already been ordered to leave the United States and Canada because of allegedly lying about his wartime record.

Latvia indicted Kalejs for allegedly taking part in atrocities in Latvia during the 1941-44 German occupation when some 80,000 Jews were killed.

He is accused of being a guard at the Salaspils concentration camp near Riga, where Jews and Russian prisoners of war were executed, tortured or died of malnutrition.

Jewish and human rights groups claim he was an officer in the Arajs Kommando, a Nazi-sponsored death squad responsible for the murder of some 30,000 Latvian Jews.

He denies all the charges.

Defence lawyers argued that Kalejs, who is said to be suffering prostate cancer and dementia, is too ill to be extradited.

Under Australia’s extradition law, Hannan was not required to judge Kalejs’s guilt or innocence, but only whether his alleged actions at the camp would constitute crimes under Australian law.

Kalejs arrived in Australia in 1950 and became an Australian citizen in 1959. He then moved to the United States and stayed there until his deportation in 1994 for allegedly lying about his wartime record.

He was deported from Canada in 1997 for the same reason and moved to Britain where he stayed until January 2000.

Kalejs was arrested in Australia last December after Latvia requested his extradition. He is staying on bail at a home for the elderly.

Kalejs left the UK in January 2000 after Home Secretary Jack Straw insisted there was nothing Britain could have done to bring him to trial.

Mr Straw said at the time that even if police had had enough evidence to detain him it was questionable whether Kalejs, who was only ever staying in Britain on a temporary basis, qualified as a ‘‘resident’’ as required by war crimes legislation.

He suggested that the deportation proceedings begun against him had helped push Kalejs into the jurisdiction of Australia, one of the country’s best placed to bring him to justice.

Kalejs left Britain voluntarily, pre-empting any deportation orders, and paid for his ticket himself, the Home Office confirmed after his departure.