Wiesenthal Center calls for probe of Croatian war criminal

Asner, who enforced racist laws under Croatia's World War II Nazi-allied regime, fled to Austria.

By JPOST STAFF
asner the sun 224 88 (photo credit: Screenshot: The Sun website)
asner the sun 224 88
(photo credit: Screenshot: The Sun website)
The Simon Wiesenthal Center requested on Thursday for a panel of international medical experts to assess the health of the never-prosecuted, escaped Croatian war criminal Milivoj Asner, currently living in Klagenfurt, Austria. Asner, who enforced racist laws under Croatia's World War II Nazi-allied regime, fled to Austria following his exposure by the center's "Operation: Last Chance" project. In a meeting in Vienna with Austrian Justice Minister Maria Berger, the center's chief Nazi-hunter and Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff said that recent photos, videos and interviews of Asner by journalists from the British daily The Sun clearly disproved the testimony of court-appointed Austrian doctors claiming Asner suffered from dementia and was too ill to be extradited to Croatia to stand trial for his crimes as Pozega's police chief. Zuroff submitted an affidavit from Sun journalist Brian Flynn, who interviewed Asner for 45 minutes and found him to be "lucid throughout the interview and that he did not forget any facts such as what he had done in the war." Zuroff is unsatisfied with Austria's role. "Austria's handling of the Asner case has been severely flawed from the very beginning and therefore the request that special measures be taken to assess Asner's health objectively are entirely justified. His tranquil life in Klagenfurt, protected by the Austrian legal system, is an insult to his many victims and their families," Zuroff said.