The Greek government favors bringing Nazi war criminals to justice but cannot demand the extradition of Alois Brunner, because it is bound by laws passed during a previous administration, government spokesman Yannis Roumbatis said Sunday.
The Greek Jewish community had made a formal request to the government a year ago to seek the extradition of Brunner from Syria, where he has lived for more than 20 years.
Brunner, a deputy and chief aide to Adolf Eichmann, arrived in Salonika, Greece, in February 1943 and immediately signed orders for the extermination of the 46,000 Jews in the city.
Roumbatis said that two laws — Nos. 3933 and 4016 — adopted in 1959 when Greece was ruled by the conservative government of Konstantinos Karamanlis, suspended the prosecution of war criminals in Greece and transferred that right to West German legal authorities.
According to Roumbatis, the present socialist regime headed by Premier Andreas Papandreou is unhappy with this situation and wants it made clear that those laws do not reflect current government policy.
FAVORS PROSECUTION OF WAR CRIMINALS
“The intention and wish of our country is that those war criminals that are running around free in the world be caught and brought to justice,” he said.
On Nov. 25, 1986, the Central Jewish Board of Greece, an umbrella organization of the country’s 5,000 Jews, asked the government to seek Brunner’s extradition. The central board, an affiliate of the World Jewish Congress, made the request after it was firmly established that Brunner was living in Damascus.
Brunner confirmed it himself in an interview with the West German magazine Bunte in 1985 after living for years under the alias Georg Fischer. Bunte claimed at the time that Brunner was prepared to give himself up as long as he had assurances he would not be handed over to Israel.
The war criminal, now 74, is also wanted by Austria, France, West Germany and Czechoslovakia in connection with the mass deportation of Jews and other atrocities. So far he has enjoyed the protection of the Syrian regime headed by President Hafez Assad.
On Nov. 11, Rev. Jesse Jackson, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, wrote to Assad, with whom he has friendly relations, asking for Brunner’s extradition to West Germany. Jackson acted at the behest of Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld.
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