Nazi war crimes suspect appeals against extradition

A court today ordered the extradition to Latvia of an 87-year-old man accused of committing war crimes as a member of a Nazi death squad the first such action by an Australian court.

Magistrate Lisa Hannan delivered the decision after weeks of hearings involving Latvian officials and defence lawyers. Konrads Kalejs, who fled Britain last year, attended the hearing in a wheelchair.

Lawyers for Kalejs immediately filed an appeal against the decision in the Federal Court, describing the ruling as ‘‘inhumane and unjust’’. Kalejs was granted bail without opposition from the prosecution.

Latvian-born Kalejs, who moved to Australia after World War Two and became an Australian citizen, was tracked down last year to a British nursing home by Nazi hunters and fled to Melbourne. Kalejs was deported from the United States and Canada in the 1990s for lying about his past.

If extradited, Kalejs would be the first suspected Nazi collaborator to face trial in Latvia since it regained independence after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The court’s decision was welcomed today by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), a lobby group for Australia’s Jewish community.

’’It’s obviously just one step and there’s a few more to go but hopefully, ultimately, justice will be done,’’ AIJAC policy analyst Jamie Hyams said.

’’If Kalejs is extradited it will be the first time that successful legal proceedings have been taken against an alleged Nazi war criminal in this country,’’ he said.

Australia investigated a number of immigrants for alleged war crimes after the war, but was criticised for failing to take action.

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

Kalejs 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.

Kalejs denies the charges.

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.

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

If his appeal is rejected, the case can be taken to higher courts and then eventually to federal Justice Minister, Chris Ellison.

Ellison said today he is committed to meeting the Latvian request, irrespective of Kalejs’s health.

’’The government does remain committed to meeting its obligation in relation to the request from Latvia,’’ he said.