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Bonn Finds It Impossible to Extradite Nazi Criminal from Egypt

October 30, 1958
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The West German Foreign Office, in an announcement which caused resentment among Nazi victims, asserted today that it would be impossible to contest the refusal of the United Arab Republic to extradite Dr. Hans Eisele for trial on war crimes charges.

Eisele, who was a doctor in the Buchenwald concentration camp, fled to Cairo after witnesses in the trial of Buchenwald camp guard Martin Sommers, accused him of murderous medical experiments on camp inmates.

A Foreign Office spokesman said that the UAR refused extradition because UAR law provides that defendants must be tried within ten years of the alleged crime. West German law provides for a 20-year period but Egyptian law must be followed in the Eisele case because there is no extradition agreement between the West German Republic and the UAR, the Foreign Office spokesman said.

The announcement pointed up demands for such an agreement to make possible the return to West Germany for trial of many Nazi criminals now living in the UAR.

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