An accused war criminal who was deported this week from Canada may never stand trial in Australia. Konrad Kalejs, 84, arrived in Australia on Wednesday, a day after the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board ordered his expulsion.
Kalejs is alleged to have been a member of the notorious Latvian Arajis Kommando squad that worked with the German SS during the war.
Kalejs claims he was a university student at the time.
He is also alleged to have used his position in the Australian Immigration Department, where he worked in the 1950s, to help fellow squad members settle in Australia.
He was deported from the United States in 1994.
As an Australian citizen, authorities here did not have the power to prevent Kalejs from returning and, unless Australian citizenship law is changed, he cannot be stripped of his residency rights.
He is also unlikely to be prosecuted under Australian war crimes legislation — the evidence presented in the United States and Canada has been assessed by the Australian Federal Police to be insufficient for a conviction in Australia.
Diane Shteinman, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said her group has been calling for legislative changes that could effectively deal with Kalejs’ case for more than a decade.
“It is appalling that a person deported from the U.S. and Canada is accorded all the privileges associated with Australian citizenship because he evaded exposure at the time he adopted this country,” she said.
“Our council is aghast that he could come back to Australia with impunity and the fault is with our laws,” she said.
The Australian attorney general has promised to review the case.
Kalejs moved to Australia after the war and later relocated to the United States.
After he was deported from the United States, he lived in a retirement home in Melbourne until he was tracked down by Australian Jewish journalists. He subsequently fled to Canada.
Of more than 800 people investigated by the Australian government since 1989 for participation in Nazi war crimes, only three have faced charges.
None of the prosecutions have been successful, although government officials estimate that at least 500 participants in crimes against humanity came to Australia after the war.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
