No extradition demand for the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El Husseini, who was used by the Nazis in an effort to arouse Hindus and Moslems against Britain, has been received by the French government, following the Yugoslav accusation that the ex-Mufti is a war criminal. The Belgrade government has charged that he had recruited Moslems in Bosnia and Herzegovina to fight against the Allies.
It is doubtful, moreover, whether the French are prepared to hand over the ex-Mufti with whom they have had good relations over a period of years and whom they once sheltered in Syria when he was compelled to flee Palestine. In any event, it was pointed out here today to the J.T.A. correspondent, a demand for his extradition would have to come from some international body, the United Nations War Crimes Commission, for example, and not from any individual country. There has been no such demand from the British Foreign Office.
When the correspondent sought today to see the ex-Mufti, who lives in the vicinity of Paris in a sumptuous villa with a beautiful garden, he was told that the former Palestine Moslem leader was not permitted to receive the press. The ex-Mufti is kept under what the French call “residential surveillance,” which also serves as protection for him, it is officially explained.
The French government does not regard the ex-Mufti as a war criminal, and he is being accorded the treatment due to a great political and religious leader, and one belonging to an old and illustrious family, the J.T.A. correspondent was told by French officials. When the ex-Mufti surrendered to the French army in Germany, where he had been working as Hitler’s agent, he had two secretaries among his considerable entourage. The secretaries were brought with him to live in a Paris suburb, but the others were left somewhere in Germany or Austria. The French questioned him after his surrender, but officials decline to give any indication of whatever statements the ex-Mufti made.
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