Hans-Jochen Vogel, the West German Minister of Justice now visiting Israel, said today that he and the Social Democratic Party opposed ending the statute of limitations on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals which is scheduled to expire in exactly one year. He told representatives of the World Federation of Polish Jews here that his party would do its utmost to see to it that Nazi war criminals do not escape justice, however long it may take to bring them to trial.
Vogel suggested that Nazi hunter Tuvia Friedman, head of the war crimes documentation center in Haifa, go to West Germany with a group of his supporters to explain to the German public why the statute of limitations should not be ended. The statute designates a period of time during which war criminals may be prosecuted; those who evade trial receive automatic immunity after it expires.
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