Charles Zentai Charles Zentai , born Károly Steiner ( born October 8 , 1921 ) , is a Hungarian - born resident of Australia accused of a Holocaust - related war crime . He has resided in Perth , Australia for many years after living in the American - and French - occupied zones of post - World War II Germany . He was on the Simon Wiesenthal Center ' s list of most wanted Nazi war criminals until 2013 . Background . Zentai , who denies the charges against him , was serving in the Hungarian Army as warrant officer at the time he is accused of having murdered Péter Balázs , an 18 - year old Jewish man , in November 1944 . According to witnesses , Balázs was not wearing his yellow star on the train , a crime punishable by death in German occupied Hungary at the time . Zentai allegedly took him to an army barracks , beat him to death , and threw his body into the Danube . Zentai was tracked down by The Simon Wiesenthal Center , which is also heading the effort to extradite him to Hungary to stand before a military tribunal . The case has been a long - held passion of Efraim Zuroff , director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center , who presented his allegations against Zentai to Hungarian prosecutors . On 8 July 2005 Zentai was arrested by the Australian Federal Police to await an extradition hearing . Zentai ' s family say the 86 - year - old widower , who has heart disease and peripheral neuropathy , would not survive the trip to Hungary . When first declared a suspect during the war and a warrant issued for his arrest Zentai , at that time living in Germany , expressed his willingness to go to Hungary to clear his name . Extradition fight . On 16 April 2007 his first appeal against the extradition case was dismissed by a full bench of the Australian Federal Court . Simon Wiesenthal Center director Efraim Zuroff said he was very pleased that Zentai ' s appeals had been rejected and that " the extradition process can finally proceed . " On 1 October 2007 new evidence came to light : a testimony by Zentai ' s military commander which was used at a trial in the Budapest People ' s Court in February 1948 . This commander blamed a fellow soldier who was later convicted . On 2 March 2009 , and despite these accusations , Zentai passed a polygraph test conducted by Gavin Willson from Australian Polygraph Services . In interviews , Willson expressed " no doubt " that Zentai was telling him the truth . Zentai ' s lawyers continued to argue against extradition , saying that war crimes were not considered illegal in Hungary in 1944 when the alleged crime took place . Zentai remained free on bail while his case was again appealed to the full bench of the Australian Federal Court . The Australian government approved Zentai ' s extradition to Hungary on November 12 , 2009 , making Zentai ' s case the first in which the Australians approved of extraditing any Nazi suspect . After an appeal to the Federal Court the extradition order was overturned on 2 July 2010 . During the appeal Zentai ' s defence lawyers argued that Zentai could not be extradited , as the Hungarian authorities had not charged him with an offence , and instead he was only being ordered to return to face questioning . The court found that the government did not have the jurisdiction to order Zentai to be extradited . In early January 2011 the Australian Home Affairs Minister Brendan O ' Connor lodged an appeal against the decision ( that as the Hungarian authorities had not laid charges , the Australian government did not have the legal power to extradite him ) . The Hungarian authorities have not explained why they could not question him in Australia under the treaty on criminal cooperation . In their public response to the decision , the Simon Wiesenthal Centre assumed Zentai will face trial if extradited . Australia ' s highest court ruled on 15 August 2012 that 90 - year - old Zentai cannot be extradited to Hungary because the offence of a " war crime " did not exist in Hungarian law in 1944 .